Chapter 21 · The Man Outside

"You need me," Noah says.

I don't lower the gun. He's standing ten feet back from the rooftop door, hands loose at his sides, no weapon I can see. The countdown on my wrist is at three. The wind up here is cold enough to sting.

"I needed you in Caracas," I say. "You weren't there."

"I was in a ditch with a broken spine." His voice is flat. "You left me for the extraction that never came."

"I called it in. I gave them your coordinates."

"They got there six hours late." He takes a step forward. "You know what happens to a man in six hours in that kind of neighborhood?"

I do. I've thought about it every night since.

"I didn't build this loop to kill you," he says. "I built it so you'd understand what it feels like. To be trapped. To watch the same people die over and over because you can't fix the one thing that matters."

"Iris has nothing to do with Caracas."

"Iris has everything to do with it." He's closer now, close enough that I can see the scar running from his left ear to his collarbone.