Chapter 32 · she said

She climbed over the broken edge and dropped.

I swore and followed.

My boots hit the roof of the lift. The metal buckled under the impact. Lilith rolled, rose, and aimed her gun at the ceiling hatch.

I landed badly and slammed into her.

Her back hit the lift door. My hands caught her shoulders. Her pistol came up between us, the muzzle touching my ribs.

"Move," she said.

"You keep putting guns on me. People are going to talk."

"They'll talk once."

"You could've said please."

"Please move before I shoot you."

"See? That wasn't hard."

I stepped aside.

The lift shuddered and began to rise. No controls lit up. No floor numbers appeared. The shaft walls blurred as we climbed.

Lilith slapped the panel. "Dead controls."

"The system is still trying to route us."

"Can you override it?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe isn't an answer."

"It's the answer you get from a man with half a brain and a murder program welded into the other half."

Her eyes cut toward me. "Don't call yourself that."

"What? A man?"

"Half a brain."

The words landed harder than they should have.

I looked at the black reflection in the lift doors.