Chapter 22 · Dead List

"Agent Flint." His voice is flat. No concern. No hurry. Like she's calling about paperwork. "Status."

Rachel's in a supply closet two floors down from the council chamber. Door locked. Gun on the shelf next to a box of cleaning tablets. Eli and Marcus are somewhere in the loading bay trying to hotwire a truck. She's got maybe three minutes before someone notices.

"The tower's compromised," she says. "Blackout surge. Multiple breaches. I'm extracting."

"Negative." No pause. No hesitation. "Hold position. Secure the target."

The target. He means Eli.

"Sir, the building is—"

"I said hold position." Something shifts in his tone. Not anger. Certainty. "Cross is priority alpha. Lethal force authorized. You have a clean shot, you take it."

Her hand tightens on the phone. "He's unarmed. He's not hostile."

"He killed Overseer Marks. He's illegal Lightborn. Those are the only facts that matter." A breath. Then quieter. Colder. "You having second thoughts, Flint?"

She should say no. She should say understood. She should hang up and put a bullet in Eli's skull before he gets Maya killed.

But she doesn't.

"I need clarification," she says. "The surge. It started right after Marks died. That's not coincidence.