Selena went still.
The room's ventilation hummed above us.
"That program is classified," she said.
"Not from you."
"You weren't cleared to know the name."
"I know the frame is under Hangar Nine. I know its interface rejects every pilot after thirty seconds. I know the last technician who tries to bypass the lock loses his left hand."
Her eyes dropped to my hands.
"Who told you?"
"Nobody."
"Then how do you know?"
"I flew it."
The lie came out clean.
The truth was worse. I had flown it after Victor had stripped out the safety locks and used my nervous system as a disposable key.
Selena pressed the muzzle into my ribs.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No. I expect you to test it."
"You want access to a classified weapons system."
"I want access before Victor gets it."
Her eyes hardened at the name.
"Why did you mention Victor?"
"Because he's going to betray you."
"Everyone says that about my chief engineer."
"Everyone is right."
"What does he do?"
"He reroutes the coolant feed during tomorrow's test. He blames the failure on the pilot. Then he uses the accident to take control of the bastion's defense network."
Selena watched my face.
I watched the gun.
Neither of us blinked.
"You sound rehearsed," she said.
"You sound curious."
"I'm deciding where to shoot."
"Head or heart?"
Her gaze dropped again, this time to my mouth.
The pause lasted less than a second.
It still burned.
"Don't flirt with a weapon pointed at you," she said.
"Don't point a weapon at someone you don't want to kill."
Her fingers closed around my shirt. "You think you know what I want?"
"I know what you don't want."
"Say it."
"You don't want Victor running this fortress. You don't want your pilots dying in machines you can't control. And you don't want to admit you need someone like me."
Her forehead nearly touched mine.
Her breath warmed the space between us.
"Someone like you?" she asked.
"Someone who survives."
"You haven't survived anything yet."
"I survived your order."
The words slipped out.
Selena's grip went completely still.
"What order?"
I heard the fire again.
Confirm the kill.
My chest tightened. I forced my voice flat.
"The one you're about to give."
She pulled the gun back and struck me across the jaw with the side of it.
My head snapped against the wall.
"Enough games," she said. "You will tell me who trained you, who sent you, and why you know the names of projects no one outside command has seen."
I tasted blood and pushed off the wall.
"You hit hard."
"I haven't hit hard yet."
"That supposed to scare me?"
"No. It's supposed to keep you honest."
I rubbed my jaw. "Then ask a better question."
"Fine. What are you?"
The warning symbol flashed across my vision again.
TEMPORAL DESYNC DETECTED.
I turned toward the cracked monitor.
The screen had come alive by itself. Lines of code crawled over the display. A date appeared in the corner.
October ninth. Year minus three.
Then another line replaced it.
LOOP INTEGRITY: 1%.
Selena saw the screen.
Her pistol came up again.
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
"It's the truth."
"You expect me to believe a screen that activated when you woke up?"
"No. I expect you to stop pretending this is normal."
She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the monitor.
Her fingers were hot against my skin. Strong. Precise. She didn't squeeze hard enough to hurt, but she didn't give me room to pull away either.
"Read it," she ordered.
"Loop integrity. One percent."
"What loop?"
"Maybe ask the machine."
"I asked you."
"Then stop asking questions you won't like."
She shoved me into the desk.
The monitor flickered. For half a second, the screen showed the reactor chamber.
Fire.
My burned hands.
Selena in the tower window.
Then it changed.
The image showed a different room. A white execution hall. Me on my knees. A dozen rifles aimed at my chest.
Selena stood behind the firing line.
Older. Harder.
She held a tablet in one hand.
My name appeared across it.
GUILTY.
Her lips moved.
Confirm the kill.
I slammed my fist into the monitor.
The glass shattered.
Selena caught my wrist before I could strike again. Her body pressed against my side as she twisted my arm behind me.
Pain shot up my shoulder.
"What did you see?" she demanded.
"Nothing."
"You reacted."
"I dislike bad screens."
"You saw me."
Her voice dropped.
I could feel her heartbeat through the fabric between us. Fast. Controlled, but not calm anymore.
"You saw me, didn't you?"
I said nothing.
She twisted my arm higher.
"Answer me."
"You were there."
"Where?"
"At my execution."
The room went silent.
Her grip loosened just enough for me to turn.
We ended up face-to-face, trapped between the desk and the sealed door. Her pistol was still in her right hand. Her left hand remained around my wrist.
"Your execution?" she asked.
"Not yet."
"You think this is funny?"
"No. I think it's early."
"Early for what?"
"For you to kill me."
Her stare drilled into mine.
"I've never met you before today."
"I know."
"Then why do you keep talking like I have?"
"Because I remember you."
The words hung there.
Selena's fingers shifted on my wrist. Her thumb rested over my pulse.
"From where?"
"The future."
She laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"You're insane."
"Maybe."
"You died in a reactor accident?"
"You ordered it."
Her face went blank.
Not calm. Blank.
That was worse.
She lifted the gun and placed it beneath my chin.
"Tell me one thing only you could know," she said.
I could tell her about the scar. Victor's knife. The south tower. The three guards outside her office who would be dead by winter.
I could tell her she kept a silver coin in the inner pocket of her jacket because her father gave it to her before the border war.
I could tell her she cried once, alone, in a command elevator after killing her own brother.
But if I said any of that, she would shoot me before I reached the next sentence.
So I gave her something smaller.
"Tomorrow's test pilot is going to vomit inside the neural cradle," I said. "He'll beg you to stop. You won't. The Black Frame will read his panic as hostile input. It will crush the left stabilizer and kill the tech standing behind the console. His name is Milo Trent. He wears a blue ring on his right hand."
Selena's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know the pilot's name?"
"Because you made me clean his blood off the cockpit."
Her thumb pressed harder against my pulse.
"Who are you?"
I stared at the woman who had once signed my death.
Outside the sealed room, boots thundered closer. Security had finally arrived.
Selena heard them too.
Her gun stayed under my chin.
The monitor sparked behind me. The warning text returned through the broken glass.
LOOP INTEGRITY: 2%.
Selena glanced at it, then back at me.
"Kane Vale," she said, voice low, "if you're lying, I will personally put you back in that scanner and—"
The door lock began to turn.
Her finger settled on the trigger.
"—and if you're telling the truth, then you just became the most dangerous man in my fortress, so tell me why I shouldn't—"