Chapter 6 · Neon Zero - Chapter 6: Sync Crash

"Move, Mara!" Knox slammed me behind the steel door half a second before the safehouse wall exploded.

The blast punched the air out of my lungs. Metal screamed. Dust filled my mouth. Knox's body covered mine, one arm locked across my chest while shards rattled over his coat.

"Get off me," I gasped.

"Gladly. When the drones stop shooting." He dragged me up by the back of my jacket. "Can you run?"

"Can you stop ordering me around for ten seconds?"

"No."

A red beam sliced through the smoke where my head had been.

Knox shoved me lower. The beam burned across the wall, leaving a glowing line in the metal.

"That answer work for you?" he snapped.

"Ask me after I kill the thing."

"You touch the wrong system, and the district wipes your spine."

"Then keep up."

I ducked under his arm and sprinted through the broken security room. The safehouse had been our trap three minutes ago.