Chapter 10 · Iron Arena - Chapter 10: Redline Sync

The qualifier booth smelled like burnt plastic and someone else's sweat. Lila didn't care. She was already strapped into the practice rig, helmet halfway on, when Cole shoved through the door.

"Get out."

She didn't look at him. Just finished snapping the chinstrap. "No."

"Lila." His voice had that edge now, the one that meant he was two seconds from dragging her out by the collar. "You don't know what you just did back there."

"I beat your record." She powered up the rig. The neural interface hummed to life against her temples, cool and sharp. "That's what I did."

Cole crossed the cramped space in two steps. His hand slammed down on the console, killing the startup sequence. The hum died. Lila's jaw clenched so hard her teeth hurt.

"You think that's something to be proud of?" He leaned in close enough that she could see the scar through his left eyebrow, the one he never talked about. "That record put me in a neural clinic for six months. I had seizures. I forgot my own name twice. So yeah, congratulations. You just painted a target on your back."

She met his eyes.