Chapter 15 · Dead Pit Gamble

"Don't touch the cards." Valerie drove her boot onto my wrist before I could close my hand.

Three black cards hovered above my palm, twitching like trapped insects. The fire wall behind us punched higher, turning the tunnel into a furnace. My coat smoked. Black blood ran from the corner of my mouth and spotted the concrete.

"Move your foot," I said.

"Give me one reason."

"Because the thing under us is still beeping."

The corpse behind my shoulder answered with another sharp electronic chirp.

Valerie's gaze cut toward it. The cyber-spliced soldier lay twisted in the gutter, half machine, half meat, its metal spine bent where I had crushed it. Red light pulsed under its jaw.

Beep.

The sewage around our boots bubbled.

Valerie pressed harder on my wrist. Her polished Board-mana pistol stayed aimed at my chest, bright silver lines crawling over the barrel.

"What did you put in that soldier?" she asked.

"I didn't put anything in him."

"You broke his spine, Jesse. You crushed three Wraith cards in your hand and used them like a bomb. Now the corpse is counting down. Try lying again."

"Fine. The Syndicate put a dead-card charge in his ribs. Happy?"