Chapter 8 · Zero Hour Paradox

"Stop moving, or I’ll carve the answer out of your throat."

Vera’s voice was a low blade against my ear. Her forearm was jammed across my windpipe, pinning me face-down against the cold, vibrating metal of the catwalk. I could feel the heat of her body pressing into my back, the smell of ozone and expensive gunpowder clinging to her gear.

I gasped, my cheek grinding into the grate. "Funny... I thought... you liked it when I fought back."

"Wrong again," she hissed. She shifted her weight, her knee digging into the small of my back with enough force to make my spine pop. "You’re not a prisoner anymore, Kael. You’re a glitch. And glitches get deleted."

I felt the cold bite of a combat knife pressing into the soft skin just below my jawline. She wasn't bluffing. The power dynamic had shifted the second we stepped out of the cell, and now I was the one breathing through a straw.

"Delete me then," I managed to choke out, my voice sounding like it had been dragged through gravel. "Unless you want to know why the clock is ticking twice as fast this time."

That made her pause.