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Ivy's hand shook as she peeled back Cole's jacket. Blood soaked through the fabric, dark and sticky. She'd already stripped the medical tape from her pack and laid it on the concrete floor beside them. The warehouse smelled like rust and old oil. Outside, somewhere past the corrugated walls, footsteps echoed and faded.
"Stop moving," she muttered.
Cole didn't answer. His breathing was shallow, uneven. She pressed gauze against the gash along his ribs and he hissed through his teeth.
"Yeah, well, you're the one who threw yourself in front of a jeep."
"Wasn't a jeep."
"Whatever it was."
She worked fast, fingers steady even though her pulse wasn't. The wound wasn't deep, but it was long. Clean slice, probably a blade. She threaded the needle and started stitching. Cole didn't flinch. He just stared at the ceiling, jaw tight.
"You do this a lot?" she asked.
"More than I should."
Ivy tied off the first stitch. "That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I've got."
She pulled the thread tight. He didn't make a sound. She hated that. Hated how calm he was, like pain was just another thing that happened to him. Like he'd done this before. Like he'd done everything before.
The recording was still looped in her head. Her own voice, saying things she didn't remember. Saying his name.
She tied off the second stitch.
"Where'd you get that file?"
Cole's eyes flicked to her. "Does it matter?"
"Yeah. It does."
"You left it. On a black channel. Encrypted."
"I don't use black channels."
"You did. You just don't remember."
Ivy's hand froze. The needle hung in the air between them. "Stop saying that."
"Saying what?"
"That I don't remember. Like I'm the one who's broken."
Cole sat up a little, wincing. "I'm not saying you're broken."
"Then what are you saying?"
He looked at her. Really looked at her. His eyes were gray, tired. Old in a way that didn't match his face. "I'm saying someone's messing with your head. And mine. And I don't know who."
Ivy's throat tightened. She didn't want to believe him. But the recording. The way he'd known about the sniper. The way he'd pulled her out of the square before the mortar hit.
She started stitching again. Faster this time.
"How many times have you saved me?"
Cole was quiet for a long time. Too long.
"Cole."
"Eighty-two."
The needle slipped. She caught it before it hit the floor. "What?"
"Eighty-two times. You die on day four. At dusk. Sniper round through the left temple. I've tried everything. Different routes, different cover, different timing. Doesn't matter. You die anyway."
Ivy's stomach twisted. She wanted to call him insane. She wanted to walk out. But his voice didn't sound crazy. It sounded tired. It sounded true.
"And this time?"
"This time it's earlier. The chip said six p.m. That's three hours ahead of schedule."
She tied off the last stitch and cut the thread. Her hands were shaking now. She wiped them on her pants and sat back against the wall. Cole pulled his jacket back on, slow and careful.
"Why me?" she asked.
"I don't know."
"Bullshit."
Cole leaned his head back against the concrete. "I signed a contract. They said it was one mission. In and out. But every time I die, I wake up at the start. Same day. Same briefing. Same everything. Except things keep changing. The mission parameters. The intel. You."
"Me."
"Yeah. At first you were just a field surgeon. Someone to extract. But every loop, you know more. You do more. This time you had the chip. Last time you had a kill list. The time before that you were already dead when I got there."
Ivy's chest felt tight. "So what am I? Bait?"
"Maybe. Or you're the key. I don't know yet."
She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. The warehouse was cold. She could see her breath. "This is insane."
"Yeah."
"You sound way too calm about it."
Cole turned his head toward her. "I've had eighty-three tries to get used to it."
Ivy laughed. It came out sharp and bitter. "So what happens when you run out of loops?"
"I don't know. No one's told me the rules."
"Great. That's great."
She pressed her palms against her eyes. Her head was pounding. She wanted to sleep. She wanted to wake up somewhere else. Somewhere normal.
But Cole's voice cut through the quiet.
"You called me Ash."
Ivy's hands dropped. "What?"
"In the recording. You called me Ash. I never told you that."
Her pulse spiked. She opened her mouth. Closed it. Tried to think. She didn't remember calling him anything. She didn't remember making the recording at all.
But the nickname sat on her tongue like it belonged there.
"I don't—" she started.
Cole's wrist beeped. He looked down at the interface strapped to his forearm. His face went pale.
"What?"
He didn't answer. He just turned the screen toward her.
The map had changed.
Before, it had been a grid of the district. Safe zones marked in green, hostile zones in red. Now the whole thing was red. Every block. Every street. And in the center, a single white dot. Blinking.
Below it, text scrolled across the screen.
TERMINATION PROTOCOL ACTIVE. TARGET: IVY CHEN. TIME REMAINING: 90 MINUTES.
Ivy's breath caught. "What the hell is that?"
Cole's jaw tightened. "That's the clock running out."
"What clock?"
"Yours."
She stared at the screen. The white dot pulsed. Ninety minutes. An hour and a half. That wasn't enough time to get out of the district. That wasn't enough time to do anything.
"This wasn't supposed to happen yet," Cole muttered. He was scrolling through the interface, fingers moving fast. "It's never this early. Never."
"Cole."
"I need to think."
"Cole."
He looked up. His eyes were wild. Desperate.
"Can you stop it?"
He didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Ivy stood. Her legs felt unsteady but she forced them to hold. "Then we move. Now."
"Where?"
"I don't know. Anywhere. You've done this eighty-two times, right? So think."
Cole pushed himself up. He swayed for a second, then steadied. "Every time I've tried to run, you die faster."
"So we don't run. We fight."
"With what? We've got one rifle and half a mag."
Ivy grabbed her pack and slung it over her shoulder. "Then we find more."
Cole stared at her. Something shifted in his expression. Something that looked almost like hope.
"You sound like her," he said quietly.
"Like who?"
"The version of you from loop forty-six. The one who made it to day five."
Ivy's stomach flipped. "What happened to her?"
Cole's face went flat. "She trusted me. And then she died anyway."
The words hung in the air between them.
Ivy swallowed. "Well. Let's make sure this version doesn't."
She started toward the door. Cole followed. His footsteps were uneven, but he kept up.
Outside, the sky was the wrong color. Too dark for late afternoon. Too red.
Ivy's wrist buzzed. She looked down.
A new message blinked on her comm unit. She didn't recognize the sender code.
She opened it.
Three words.
RUN, LITTLE DOCTOR.
Her blood went cold.
Cole leaned over her shoulder. "Who sent that?"
"I don't know."
Her comm buzzed again.
Another message.
HE CAN'T SAVE YOU.
Then a third.
BUT I CAN.
Cole's hand closed around her wrist. "Don't answer it."
"Why not?"
"Because whoever's sending that is the same person who's been watching me die for eighty-three loops."
Ivy's throat tightened. She looked at the screen. The messages glowed in the dim light.
Her thumb hovered over the reply key.
Cole's grip tightened. "Ivy. Don't."
She looked up at him. His face was hard. Scared.
She pressed send anyway.
WHO ARE YOU?
The reply came instantly.
SOMEONE WHO REMEMBERS.
Ivy's chest squeezed.
The comm buzzed one more time.
CHECK THE COORDINATES I JUST SENT. YOU HAVE SEVENTY-EIGHT MINUTES.
A new file appeared on her screen. Map coordinates. North edge of the district. Sector nine.
Cole was staring at the screen. His face had gone white.
"What?" Ivy asked.
"That's the place I've never been able to reach," he said. "Every time I've tried, I die before I get there."
Ivy looked at the coordinates. Then at Cole. Then at the red sky.
"So we go."
"It's a trap."
"Maybe. Or maybe it's the way out."
Cole didn't move.
Ivy grabbed his arm. "You said you've tried everything. So try this."
He looked at her. For a second, she thought he'd say no. Thought he'd pull her back into the warehouse and tell her to wait it out.
But then he nodded.
"Okay."
They started running.
Behind them, the warehouse door slammed open.
Shouts echoed through the alley.
Ivy didn't look back.