Chapter 14 · The City's Buried Heart

Nolan woke to the taste of copper and someone counting backward.

Ten.

The voice came through the metal walls. Smooth. Sexless. Layered over the thin whine of cooling fans.

Nine. Eight.

His fingers twitched against the restraints.

The lab came back in pieces. White light bleeding through his eyelids. Chemical sting in his nose. Pressure of a neural crown clamped around his skull. Beyond the glass, machines breathed in measured pulses. Red glyphs crawled across the ceiling. Somewhere far above, the city trembled under its own electric weight.

Seven.

Nolan opened his eyes.

The chamber was smaller than he remembered. Or maybe he'd grown into the fear that used to fill it. Three surveillance guards stood outside the transparent partition, armor matte black, visors reflecting his pale face. Cables ran from the base of his neck into the floor. A ring of blue light spun beneath the chair.

A woman watched from the far side of the observation deck.

Sevlyn Voss.

No helmet. Silver hair pulled tight against her skull. The scar beneath her left eye looked almost delicate under the lab's sterile light. One hand on the rail. The other holding a control slate.

Six.

Nolan tried to swallow.