Chapter 19 · Drake's Locked Room

"You're walking me into a kill box."

Jude didn't slow down. He turned left at the junction where the station lights flickered red, moving like he'd walked this corridor a hundred times. Maybe he had.

"I'm walking you into the only place Drake can't reset from," he said. "There's a difference."

"Yeah?" I kept my gun low but ready, tracking the halls ahead. "What's the difference?"

"One of us walks out."

That didn't make me feel better. The blast was eight minutes gone. My sister's ID had vanished off the system, the train had pulled out, and the whole city had skipped forward twelve minutes like someone cut the tape. Except I remembered. And Jude remembered. And Drake's voice had come through every speaker in the station, calm and pleased, like she was narrating a nature documentary.

*Congratulations, Captain Vane. You've just entered the live trial.*

I shoved that voice out of my head and focused on Jude's back. He moved fast, shoulders tight, hands empty. He wasn't armed. I was. That should've been reassuring. It wasn't.

"How do you know where we're going?" I asked.

"Because I helped build it."

I stopped walking.