Chapter 11 · The Unsafe House

"Don't move." Vala's knee pinned my thigh, and the muzzle of her pistol pressed under my jaw. "Tell me how you know my brother is alive. Now."

I kept both hands flat against the metal floor. One wrong twitch and she would put a round through my skull, then leave me in the vent for the corporate sweepers to find.

"You always ask questions like that?" I said. "Or only when you're trapped in a ventilation shaft with the guy you were paid to kill?"

Her grip tightened on the front of my jacket. The fabric pulled against my throat. Her face hovered inches from mine, cold and sharp under the red emergency strips. I could feel her breath against my cheek.

"You have five seconds."

"That's generous."

"Four."

"Vala—"

"Three."

The Void stirred behind my eyes.

The vent walls stretched into black lines. Code crawled across the metal like silver insects. I saw three possible paths ahead, two dead ends, and one bright fracture in the security grid.

Then the fracture opened.

My hand slipped through it.

Not physically. Not exactly. My fingers dropped into a space that wasn't part of the vent, and the world around me stuttered.