Chapter 29 · Neon Dance of Betrayal

"Don't move, or I'll fry your brain before the upload even hits ten percent," Lilith hissed, her voice a dangerous low vibration against my ear.

I felt the cold bite of her combat knife pressing into the soft skin of my throat. She had me pinned against the server rack, my chest heaving, the smell of ozone and her expensive, sharp perfume filling my lungs. Behind us, the holographic progress bar flickered in a sickly neon green: 8%... 9%...

"You're really going to do it?" I managed to choke out, my voice sounding like I'd swallowed glass. "You're actually going to let Viktor take the data?"

"It's not about the data, Kai. It's about leverage," she whispered. She shifted her weight, her thigh pressing firmly against mine, pinning me in place. I could feel the heat radiating off her, a stark contrast to the freezing air of the server vault. "If I give him what he wants, he lets us walk. If I don't, we're both dead in this room in three minutes. Now, shut up and let the code run."

I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "Leverage. That's what you call it.