Chapter 18 · Keep Her Off the Train

"She's not getting on that train."

Jude's voice cracked through the comm as Lyra shoved through the fire door. The console still glowed behind her, Kira's ID stamped at the top of the death list.

"Then move," Lyra said. "I'm already on my way."

The platform was two blocks south. The 14:40 left in four minutes, and Kira had been alive for sixteen loops only because the reset kept giving her back.

"Lyra." Jude's tone hardened. "Leave that console and Drake gets the protocol key."

"Drake can have it."

"He can have the whole city if you let him."

She hit the stairs at a run. "I want my sister alive."

"She is alive. Right now."

"And in three minutes?"

Jude swore. "You don't know the train kills her."

"I know it did every time."

"You know the result. Not the trigger."

Her boots slammed against the steps. "Then I'll find out before she boards."

"If you pull her off, you may trigger the reset early."

"Good."

"That's not a plan."

"It's better than watching her die again."

The stairwell spat her into the transit tunnel. Voices bounced off the tile. Fifty yards to the platform.