Chapter 24 · Vessel Protocol

"Move, Rex!" Vesper slammed her shoulder into my back and shoved me through the service hatch as the harvest machine fired.

The beam hit the catwalk behind us. Metal flashed white. A section of railing vanished, dripping molten slag through the floor grates.

I hit the deck on one knee. Vesper landed over me, one hand braced beside my head, her face close enough that I felt the heat of her breath against my cheek.

"You shoved me into the kill zone," I snapped.

"You were standing in it."

"I was trying to cut the power."

"You were trying to punch a six-story machine."

"It worked last time."

"Last time you had a building falling on you."

Another beam carved across the upper platform. The whole sky rail screamed. Tracks buckled above the dock, and a suspended train car swung sideways, its windows glowing orange from the inside.

The machine had been built to harvest apex mutations from living bodies. Now it had locked onto the rail grid, drawing power from every reactor under the district.