Chapter 18 · Marked Collateral

"Don't touch the red wire." Valerie's hand snapped around my wrist before my knife reached the bomb.

"Then stop standing between me and it."

"That isn't a wire. It's a trigger loop. Cut it, and the charge skips straight into your deck."

The device pulsed under Jax's shirt, a black metal disk bolted over his chest. Blue light crawled through the seams with every frantic beat of his artificial heart. The timer above it showed 02:47.

Jax was strapped to a steel chair in the middle of the maintenance room. His hands shook against the restraints. His one real eye stayed fixed on me. The artificial one flickered red.

"Two minutes forty-seven," he said. "You two gonna keep flirting, or are you planning to save my ass?"

Valerie shoved me back with one palm. Her glove dragged across my coat, stopping just short of my throat. She was close enough that I felt the heat of her breath against my jaw.

"Say that again," she said.

"I said the timer's not getting any younger."

"No. The other part."

"You heard me."

I caught her wrist before she could press harder. Her pulse jumped beneath my fingers.