Chapter 26 · The Deicide Protocol

Vesper’s hand locked around my throat before I could reach the control panel.

“Touch that console and I break your neck.”

Her palm was hot against my skin. Her body pressed into mine from behind, hard armor scraping my jacket, her breath sharp against my ear. The gun in her other hand stayed aimed across the chamber.

At the center of the reactor room, a glass cyber-cradle pulsed with blue light.

Inside it, a girl floated in a web of cables.

Vesper’s sister.

“Bit dramatic,” I rasped. “You always threaten people before breakfast?”

“We’re three minutes from a reactor breach.” Her fingers tightened. “You don’t get breakfast.”

“Then let go and I’ll fix it.”

“You can’t fix it.”

“Funny. You said that last time, right before I saved your life.”

“You also caused the breach.”

“Details.”

The girl inside the cradle jerked. Her fingers curled against the glass. A thin red line flashed across her throat-mounted interface, then vanished under the blue glow.

Vesper saw it.

Her grip loosened for half a second.

I drove my elbow back.

She caught it.

“Cute,” she snapped.

“Wasn’t trying to be.