Chapter 26 · Neon Zero - Chapter 26: Zero Isn't A Level

"Pull the core out, Knox. Now." Orin shoved the emergency console toward him. "Her brother is already inside the purge grid. If you keep the link running, the system will use Mara as the bridge and erase him first."

Knox didn't touch the console.

His hand stayed locked around my wrist, thumb pressed hard against my pulse. His other arm held me against the steel wall while red warning bars crawled across the sealed gate behind us.

"Say that again," he said.

Orin swallowed. "The core is feeding on her identity code. It's trying to stabilize itself through the nearest matching signature. Her brother's signature is inside the district network. Pull the core, and the system loses the bridge."

"And Mara?" Knox asked.

Orin looked at me for half a second, then away.

"She loses too."

My fingers dug into Knox's sleeve. "Don't make that face."

"What face?"

"The one where you decide who gets to die."

His jaw tightened. The warning light cut across his cheek, turning his eyes flat and silver. He could trigger the kill code in my spine with one thought. I knew it.