Chapter 16 · The Queen's Last Word

"They're waiting for us." Vera's nails dug through my jacket as something scraped its way across the flooded tracks.

I pressed her behind a rusted beam and kept my plasma blade low. "Yeah. I noticed."

The tunnel smelled like burnt metal, old piss, and the sharp chemical stink of bug residue. Somewhere past the water, something clicked its jaws.

Alpha had gone quiet after the fight topside. Dad's cleanup squad hadn't left the station. They'd driven us underground, straight toward the queen.

"Iris." Vera used her doctor voice—the calm one she used when everything was already going to hell. "We can still turn around. Find another exit."

"There isn't one."

"You don't know that."

"You saw the data. Kill the queen, and the rest go dormant."

"Or they all activate at once and eat the district."

"Then we better not screw it up."

She stared at me. "That was your plan?"

"It was the short version."

Vera didn't laugh. She hadn't laughed at my jokes since she found my file in her database. Agent X-07.