Chapter 26 · The Price of a Name

A gun kicked in my hand as the woman wearing Leia's face smiled from inside the Core.

The shot slammed into the militia trooper behind me. He hit the floor, armor ringing against the luminous panels.

"Don't shoot her," Kane yelled. "Leia, get away from the Engine!"

I didn't lower my weapon.

The woman stood behind the transparent shell of the City Core. Silver-threaded black hair fell to her waist. A crescent scar curved beneath her left eye. Even the notch in her upper lip matched mine—the mark I'd touched every morning before the memories started disappearing.

Except she had my face, and I knew I'd never seen her before.

The red clock burned above us.

00:03:17.

Every pulse beneath my boots dragged another scream through the Root Authority. A debtor collapsed in a flooded district. A child was tagged for labor. An old woman begged an oxygen gate to open.

The Covenant Engine pushed all of it into my skull.

ORIGIN OVERRIDE. ARCHITECT CONFIRMED.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The woman tilted her head. "You know."

"I don't."

"That's what you paid for."

Gunfire cracked behind me.