Chapter 12 · What the Kill Order Hid

I stared at the screen in Senna's hand. TERMINATE KIRA VOSS. NOW.

The letters didn't blur or shift. They just sat there. Clean. Official. Someone had typed my name into a kill order and hit send.

I lowered the guns. Not because I trusted her. Because my arms were shaking and I needed a second to think.

"When?" My voice came out flat.

Senna didn't look away. "Three days before your tribunal. My dad got this from fleet intel. He was trying to figure out why."

"And?"

"And they executed him before he could tell me."

I laughed. It sounded wrong in the tight space between us. "So you pulled me off death row because what? You thought I'd help you solve a mystery?"

"I pulled you because you were next." She shoved the tablet at me. "Look at the signature."

I didn't want to. I looked anyway.

Victor Lane. Fleet Intelligence. Black-ops liaison.

The name sat in my head like a stone I couldn't spit out.

"I don't know him," I said.

"You don't remember him." Senna's jaw tightened. "There's a difference."

Something slammed into the outer corridor. Metal on metal. Voices.