Chapter 15 · She Remembers the Wrong Man

"Don't touch that."

Iris's hand froze over the terminal. Her fingertips hovered an inch from the screen, close enough that the biometric scanner started cycling green.

"Why not?" She didn't look at me. Her voice was flat, the kind of flat that meant she'd already made up her mind and was just being polite about hearing me out.

"Because Vera said the loop's keyed to your memory. We don't know what happens if you pull the wrong thread."

"We know what happens if I don't." She tapped the screen. The interface bloomed open, lines of code scrolling faster than I could track. "Twenty-seven resets, Cade. You've died twenty-seven times. I've died more. I'm tired of not knowing why."

I stepped closer. The server room was cramped, all steel racks and blinking LEDs and the low hum of cooling fans. Vera was slumped against the wall behind us, one hand pressed to the bandage on her side, the other still holding her sidearm loose across her lap. She wasn't unconscious yet, but she was close.

"Iris."

"I can see the file structure." Her voice picked up speed.