Chapter 32 · Forty-Seven

The beam hits water two meters right. Steam explodes up. I bank left and the case slams my ribs.

"Four minutes fifty." The voice in my head. Not Alpha. Just the system counting down to when my heart stops.

Another beam. Close enough the heat blisters the air by my face. I drop ten meters, skim the surface. Salt spray hits my visor.

"Iris, you need to go faster." Vera's voice is tight. "That ship's gaining."

"I'm at max thrust with one arm." The city skyline—maybe three miles out. Might as well be thirty. "Your shutdown stunt bought me speed. Not enough."

"Four minutes thirty-eight."

I risk a look back. The mothership's a quarter-mile of black metal hanging in the sky like a surgical knife. Lights ripple along its underside. Another charging cycle.

"Vera." I grip the case tighter. "If I don't make it—"

"You're making it."

"If I don't, you need to know. The second heart. It says authorized recipient M. Chen."

Silence on the line.

Then: "Mom."

"Yeah." I punch more power into the thruster. The turbine in my chest screams. "They didn't destroy it. Someone kept it. Someone sold it."

"Iris, listen." Commander Reyes cuts in.