Chapter 11 · Lab Zero

The door split open.

Black metal peeled apart, spilling cold air across the tunnel. It smelled like bleach and hot wiring and something sweet rotting underneath both. Past the threshold, a narrow passage dropped into darkness. Blue lights pulsed along the walls, each one blinking in time with the pressure building behind Leia's right eye.

The Covenant Engine stirred.

SOVEREIGN ACCESS: ACTIVE.

PROXIMITY TO CONTRACTED SUBJECT: 412 METERS.

CONTRACT: PROTECT NOLAN MORN.

STATUS: UNBROKEN.

Leia kept her pistol aimed at Kane's chest.

He stood on the other side of the threshold, one hand still on the forged key he'd used to crack the door. Red light from the tunnel cut across his face, catching the scar under his jaw and the blood drying at his temple.

"You said this led to a safehouse," she said.

"I said it led through Meridian Black territory."

"You said we could disappear."

"I was wrong."

The honesty hit harder than a lie would've. Kane glanced at the screen mounted in the vehicle behind them. Nolan's face, frozen there. Pale under surgical lamps. Wrists pinned to a metal table.