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"Don't move, Rex. The drones have your face painted red."
Vesper's voice cut through the sirens as two laser dots crawled across my forehead.
I crouched behind a split cargo hauler with one hand pressed to my ribs. Blood leaked between my fingers. Across the loading lane, three patrol drones hovered above the wreckage, their guns tracking every twitch.
"You said the corps lost us," I hissed.
"I said I lost them. Big difference."
"You're the corporate assassin. Make them go away."
Vesper shoved my shoulder down before I could peek over the metal. Her glove scraped my jaw. The contact lasted half a second, but her body heat stayed against me, sharp and distracting.
"If I could make them go away," she whispered, "I wouldn't be hiding beside a man who's leaking on my boots."
"Then stop complaining and start killing."
The nearest drone chirped.
A red targeting line slid from my brow to my chest.
Vesper's fingers tightened around the back of my coat. "You get shot, I get shot. Remember the tether?"
"Hard to forget. Every breath you take feels like someone is pulling wire through my skull."
"Good. Keep feeling it."
The drone fired.
She dragged me sideways as the cargo hauler exploded behind us. Heat punched my back. Metal fragments screamed across the loading lane. I hit the ground with Vesper on top of me, her forearm locked across my throat.
For one stupid second, our faces were inches apart.
Her dark hair brushed my cheek. Her breath touched my mouth. Her eyes stayed cold, but her pulse jumped under the skin of her neck.
"Get off," I growled.
"Try asking nicely."
"Move, or I'll throw you into the next drone."
"You can't even stand straight."
I shoved her away. Pain tore through my side, and my knees almost folded.
Vesper caught my belt before I hit the concrete. "There. That was pathetic."
"You caught me. That makes it your problem."
"It's already my problem. Your illegal core is riding my nervous system like a stolen bike."
Another drone rose above the burning hauler. Its underside opened, revealing a rotary cannon.
Vesper looked at it, then at me.
"We have six seconds," she said.
"For what?"
"For you to stop being an idiot."
"That's not enough time."
"Then die quickly."
She shoved me toward a service trench. I landed hard, rolled, and caught the edge before dropping into the dark. Vesper jumped after me as rounds chewed through the concrete where our heads had been.
We crashed into a narrow maintenance tunnel shoulder to shoulder. Her knee hit mine. My hand caught the wall beside her face.
The tunnel was barely wide enough for one person. We were pressed together from hip to shoulder, forced to breathe the same hot, dirty air.
Vesper glanced at my hand. "Move it."
"You first."
"You want the drone to hear us?"
"I want you to stop acting like you own the floor."
Her mouth twitched. Not a smile. Almost one.
Then the city alarm changed pitch.
A heavy impact shook the tunnel. Dust fell from the ceiling. Something enormous landed above us.
Vesper's expression hardened. "That isn't a patrol drone."
A steel foot smashed through the tunnel roof.
We threw ourselves in opposite directions as a corporate hunter mech dropped into the service lane. It stood twelve feet tall, wrapped in black armor, with four weapon arms and a blue reactor glowing behind its chest plates.
A speaker crackled.
"Rex Vane. Vesper Croft. By order of Helix Security, surrender the prototype core and submit to neural extraction."
I wiped blood from my mouth. "They know your name. That's sweet."
"They know yours too."
"Mine's probably on a lot more wanted posters."
The mech's guns rotated toward us.
Vesper grabbed the front of my coat and slammed me against the tunnel wall. Her body blocked my line of sight from the machine.
"Listen carefully," she said. "Your core is unstable. My tether is the only thing keeping it from cooking your brain."
"You sound worried."
"I'm worried about my own brain. Yours is a lost cause."
She pulled a thin metal strip from her belt. Its surface flashed with corporate code.
"We need a binding contract," she said.
I laughed once. "You brought paperwork to a gunfight?"
"It's a survival lock. We sign it, and the tether shares motor control during combat."
"No."
"Then the mech kills you, your core detonates, and the feedback kills me."
"Still no."
Vesper pressed the strip against my chest. Blue symbols crawled across the metal.
"You don't get to refuse."
"I refuse everything you ask. It's one of my better qualities."
The mech fired.
Vesper spun us both behind a support pillar. The blast ripped through the tunnel entrance. Shards of concrete punched into her shoulder. She grunted but didn't let go of me.
Her face was close again. Too close. I could feel the tremor in her arm where she held the strip between us.
"Terms," she snapped. "We share reflexes for ten minutes. Neither of us can attack the other during the lock. If one of us breaks the contract, both nervous systems seize."
"And after ten minutes?"
"The tether remains."
"That's not an answer."
"After ten minutes, we find a way to cut it. If we live."
The mech stepped over the collapsed entrance. Its shadow swallowed the tunnel.
I stared at the glowing strip. "What else?"
"You follow my commands in combat."
"Absolutely not."
"Then I follow yours."
That stopped me.
Vesper's jaw tightened. "Don't look so pleased. If you make one stupid move, I feel it before you finish making it."
"So you admit I lead better than you."
"I admit the core chose a reckless scavenger with a death wish."
"That's not what you said."
"Sign."
The mech's arm punched through the pillar. Vesper shoved me down and took the hit on her blade. The impact drove her to one knee. Her weapon bent. Blood ran from the corner of her mouth.
I grabbed her wrist before the mech could crush it.
"You okay?"
She looked up at me. "Don't start caring now. It makes you slower."
"I wasn't caring. I was checking whether you'd be useful."
"Liar."
The word landed harder than it should have.
I pressed my palm to the contract strip. Vesper slapped hers over mine.
The device bit into our skin with a hot flash.
A line of blue light snapped from her wrist to mine. The tether tightened. Her heartbeat slammed into my chest, fast and furious. My vision doubled, then split into two overlapping views—my own eyes and hers.
"What the hell did you do?" I yelled.
"You signed."
"You said shared reflexes."
"I said the terms. You didn't listen."
"I hate you."
"Good. Use it."
The mech tore the pillar apart.
Vesper moved before I did. Her body twisted left. My body followed without permission. We ducked under the swinging arm, hit the ground together, and rolled through a curtain of sparks.
"Left," she ordered.
I went right.
Her fist punched my shoulder through the tether, snapping my body back toward the left. "I said left."
"You don't get to steer me."
"Then stop fighting the link."
The mech's cannon opened.
I felt Vesper's fear before I saw it. Not panic. Calculation. She knew exactly how much damage the blast would do.
"Down," I said.
She obeyed.
The cannon fired over our heads and blew apart the tunnel wall. We sprinted through the gap into an abandoned freight bay. I stumbled. Vesper caught my hand and pulled me behind a stack of sealed crates.
Her fingers stayed around mine for one extra beat.
"Don't let go," she said.
"That an order?"
"Yes."
"Ask properly."
She leaned close, her breath warm against my ear. "Hold on, Rex. Or I will drag you by the throat."
"Better."
The mech entered the bay, crushing a crate beneath its heel.
Vesper released my hand and drew two short blades. One was cracked. The other shook slightly in her grip.
"We can't damage the armor," she said. "The reactor is exposed only during a weapon cycle."
"So we wait for it to shoot us. Great plan."
"We bait the cycle."
"With what?"
Her eyes dropped to my chest, where the illegal core pulsed under my skin.
"With you."
"No."
"You heal faster than I do."
"You don't know that."
"I felt your regeneration through the tether. Your body is already rebuilding the puncture wound."
I glanced down. The blood had slowed.
Vesper stepped into my space and hooked two fingers under my chin, forcing my eyes back to hers.
"You want to live?"
"Obviously."
"Then let it chase you."
"And you?"
"I get the reactor."
"If you miss, we both die."
"Then don't make me miss."
The mech's targeting system clicked.
I shoved away from the crates and ran.
"Rex!"
The first shot blew apart the floor behind me. I vaulted a conveyor frame, hit the ground, and kept moving. The mech tracked me with one gun while its other arms opened fire at Vesper.
Through the tether, I felt her move before she appeared. She slipped between rounds, coat snapping around her legs, and drove a blade into the joint behind the mech's knee.
The machine dropped half a foot.
"Now!" she shouted.
"Not yet!"
I ran straight at it.
The mech raised both cannons. Its chest plates split apart, revealing the blue reactor.
Vesper cursed. "Rex, move!"
"Wait for it."
The reactor charged. Blue light flooded the bay.
My core responded with a savage pulse. Hunger crawled through my veins, begging to tear into the machine and take whatever power lived inside it.
I almost lost my footing.
"What are you doing?" Vesper demanded through the link.
"Trying something new."
"Don't you dare eat that reactor."
"You said it was exposed."
"I said hit it. Not swallow it."
The mech fired.
Vesper slammed into my back through the tether, forcing me down. The blast passed over us and punched through the far wall.
We came up together, back-to-back.
Her shoulder pressed against mine. Her breathing matched mine. For one strange second, I couldn't tell which heartbeat belonged to me.
"On three," she said.
"I don't take orders."
"One."
"You skipped two."
"Three!"
We moved.
I drove my fist into the reactor housing. Vesper struck at the same instant, both blades crossing beside my arm. The armor split with a shriek.
The machine swung its remaining weapon arm.
I caught the motion through her nerves. She caught mine. We ducked together, turned together, and punched through the opening from opposite sides.
Our knuckles hit the reactor core at the same time.
The blue light went white.
The mech froze.
"Rex," Vesper whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Pull your hand out."
"Can't."
"Why can't you?"
The core latched onto my palm. Lines of light raced up my arm. The tether between Vesper and me flared so brightly that her face turned silver.
She seized my jacket and pulled. "Rex, get out!"
"It's taking the energy."
"It's taking you."
The mech's speaker crackled one last time. "Prototype identification confirmed. Apex core active. Citywide alert authorized."
Every screen in the freight bay lit up.
A red countdown appeared.
00:09:59.
Vesper stared at the numbers. "Ten minutes."
"Until what?"
"Until every corporate hunter in Sector Zero gets our location."
The reactor blew apart.
The blast threw us through the freight bay doors and into a narrow service alley. I hit the ground first. Vesper landed across me, one hand braced beside my head.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Her hair fell across my face. Her knee pressed against my thigh. Heat radiated from her through the torn fabric of my coat.
"Move," I said, but my voice came out rough.
"You move."
"You're on top of me."
"And you're still complaining. Impressive."
The tether gave a hard pulse.
Her breath caught. Mine did too.
Then the city speakers blared.
"Attention, Sector Zero. Unauthorized apex prototype detected. All citizens are ordered to shelter. Lethal force is approved."
A second message followed, colder and more precise.
"Priority targets: Rex Vane and Vesper Croft. Capture reward: one million credits."
Vesper slowly lifted her head. "They put a price on you."
"They put a price on us."
"No. They put a price on the core. You're just the bag carrying it."
"And you're what? The knife they sent to cut the bag open?"
Her fingers curled against the concrete beside my ear.
"I was," she said.
"Past tense?"
"Don't push me."
"You keep telling me not to do things. Starting to think you like having me this close."
Her eyes narrowed. Her face was still inches from mine.
"You want to test that theory?"
The words were quiet. Too quiet.
I felt her pulse jump again through the tether.
Before I could answer, a patrol drone screamed over the alley.
Vesper rolled off me and pulled me behind a stack of rusted containers. She yanked a stolen access card from the mech debris and jammed it into a maintenance door.
"Inside," she ordered.
"You first."
"You don't trust me?"
"I trust you exactly as far as I can throw you."
"Then throw me later. Move now."
The lock flashed red.
The drone's targeting beam swept across the alley.
Vesper grabbed my face with both hands and pulled me down behind the container. Her thumb pressed against my jaw. Her mouth hovered close enough that I felt her breath, but she stopped before touching me.
"Don't breathe," she whispered.
"You make that difficult."
Her gaze dropped to my mouth.
Just for a second.
Then she slapped the access card against the reader again. "Come on."
The door clicked open.
We shoved through and slammed it behind us. The drone fired. The blast punched a smoking hole through the metal, but the door held.
Inside, a narrow passage led toward an old safehouse buried under the dock district. Vesper moved fast, one hand pressed to her bleeding shoulder. I followed, trying not to limp.
"You need a medic," I said.
"I need you quiet."
"Your shoulder's bleeding through the coat."
"And your face is annoying through the coat. We all have problems."
"You can barely lift that arm."
She stopped so fast I nearly ran into her.
"Say that again."
"I said you can barely—"
Her blade touched the soft skin beneath my jaw.
The tether pulled her anger straight through me. Hot. Focused. Personal.
"Finish that sentence," she said.
I looked down at the blade, then back at her. "You want me to?"
"Try me."
"You can barely keep the knife steady."
The blade shook.
Her eyes flashed. She drove me against the wall, hard enough to rattle my teeth. Her forearm pinned my chest. The knife rose until the tip hovered beside my eye.
"You think the core makes you untouchable?"
"No. I think you need me alive."
"For now."
"That's all I need."
Her face was inches from mine again. Her breath smelled faintly of copper. A thin line of blood ran from her lip to her chin.
I lifted my hand and wiped it away with my thumb.
She went still.
"Don't," she whispered.
"You had blood on your face."
"I know where my face is."
"Then stop staring at my hand."
Her grip tightened against my chest. "Keep provoking me, Rex. See what happens."
"You're the one holding a knife near my eye."
"And you're the one smiling."
"Maybe I like dangerous women."
"Maybe you're too stupid to know when you're about to die."
The safehouse lock beeped at the end of the passage.
Vesper lowered the blade but didn't step away. "We go in, seal the door, and cut the tether."
"You know how?"
"I know someone who does."
"Who?"
"A ripperdoc."
"And what's his price?"
"Your core telemetry."
"Not happening."
"Then keep sharing my nervous system until one of us gets shot."
"You could've told me before signing."
"You could've read the contract."
"You put it against my chest while a mech was trying to turn us into paste."
"And you still signed."
She stepped back and entered the access code.
The safehouse door swung open.
A sawed-off barrel greeted my nose.
Vesper's hand snapped toward her blade.
I caught her wrist before she could draw. The tether tightened between us, and the gunman cocked the weapon with a dry, brutal click.
A man's voice came from inside the dark room.
"Easy, Rex. One twitch and I put both of you down."
Vesper's fingers flexed against mine. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
The barrel pressed closer to my face.
"Now tell me," the gunman said, "which one of you stole the apex core—"