Chapter 9 · The Heartbeat Lab

The loading dock smelled like burnt rubber and old rain. Mara crouched behind a dumpster, watching the single guard pace under the yellow security light. Kade was somewhere to her left, silent as always. She couldn't see him but she felt the heat rolling off his body even from ten feet away.

The guard stopped. Checked his phone. Kept walking.

"Seventeen minutes," Kade said in her ear. The comm unit Juno gave them was the size of a pill. It made his voice sound flat and too close. "We go now or we don't go."

Mara's hand tightened around the stolen keycard. Juno had pulled it off a drunk Helios contractor two hours ago and charged them three hundred credits they didn't have. The card would get them through the loading dock door. After that they were betting on chaos and Kade's ability to tear through anything that got in the way.

She thought about the video. Claire's face on that tiny screen, pale and thin and alive. Don't come, Claire had said. It's a trap. But her eyes were begging and Mara couldn't leave her there. Wouldn't.

The guard turned the corner.