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"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. Now the city had turned it into a box with guns on every side.
The floor jumped as another impact hit somewhere below us.
My vision flashed white.
A black status bar appeared across the corner of my sight.
MARA VEY: HP 19%
KNOX ARDEN: HP 19%
SYNC ERROR: SHARED DAMAGE ACTIVE
"Nineteen?" I shouted. "We were at thirty-two!"
"The wall took the hit." Knox fired through the smoke. His weapon gave a hard electric crack, and one of the ceiling drones dropped in a shower of sparks.
"You could've mentioned the shared damage before we started getting shot!"
"You were busy stealing my access key."
"You were busy trying to arrest me."
"Still am."
The remaining drone unfolded six metal limbs and crawled across the ceiling. Its lens turned toward me.
Knox grabbed my waist and pulled me into the narrow space between two support beams. His chest hit my back. Heat pressed through both our jackets. His breath brushed my ear as the drone's targeting light moved over us.
"Don't move," he whispered.
"Your hand is on my waist."
"Would you prefer the drone's claw?"
"I prefer you not touching me."
"Then stop making me save your life."
His fingers tightened for one sharp second.
The drone passed overhead.
I could feel Knox's heartbeat against my shoulder blade. Too fast. Too steady. Mine was trying to climb out of my throat.
The moment the light moved away, I drove my elbow back.
He caught it.
"Cute," he murmured.
"Let go."
"Give me one reason."
"Because if you keep holding me, I swear I'll break your wrist."
His mouth came close to my ear. "You already tried that."
"You still have both hands. Clearly I need to try harder."
He released me, but only after pushing me toward the emergency hatch.
"South tunnel," he said. "We get below the purge grid, then cut through the maintenance rail."
"The south tunnel is sealed."
"Not for me."
"Your officer badge doesn't work anymore."
"My badge doesn't. My clearance does."
That stopped me for half a step.
Knox caught it. His eyes narrowed through the dust.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"You heard something in that word."
"I heard you bragging. Keep walking."
We reached the hatch. Knox slammed his palm against the reader. The screen blinked red.
ACCESS DENIED.
A siren started inside the wall.
"You were saying?" I asked.
"Shut up."
He hit the reader again. Red. Again. Red.
The system voice rolled through the room.
"Unauthorized biological pair detected. Purge sequence begins in sixty seconds."
My stomach dropped.
"Biological pair?" I said.
"Don't start."
"It called us a pair."
"The system calls anything with a shared life bar a pair."
"You sound defensive."
"I sound like a man trying to keep you alive."
"You sound like a man who knows more than he's telling me."
His jaw locked.
There it was. The tiny pause. The answer he didn't want to give.
I stepped between him and the hatch. "What happens at zero?"
"You don't want to know."
"That's not an answer."
"At zero, the network marks both bodies as failed assets."
"And then?"
Knox looked past me at the countdown burning above the door.
"Then the city cleans up."
The siren screamed again.
"Define cleans up."
"Mara."
"Define it."
"It kills us."
For one second, the safehouse went quiet except for the ticking countdown.
Fifty-two seconds.
A gunshot punched through the wall beside Knox's head.
He seized my wrist and pulled me toward the opposite corridor.
"Move!"
"You don't get to drop that and run!"
"You want a longer explanation? Fine. The purge grid sends a signal through the implants. It shuts down every illegal signature in the district. Your body won't know the difference between a command and a bullet."
"And yours?"
"Mine already has a failure code."
His grip faltered.
I stared at him. "What did you say?"
"I said run."
"No. You said failure code."
"You heard wrong."
"I can see your status, Knox. I know when you're lying."
His face hardened. "Then look away."
He yanked me around the corner as three rounds tore through the corridor wall. Hot metal clipped my sleeve. Knox shoved me behind a concrete pillar and returned fire without looking.
The first shot hit a drone lens.
The second hit the shooter behind the breach.
The third missed because his hand jerked violently.
He pressed his palm to his temple.
"Knox?"
"Don't."
"Your HP just dropped to twelve."
"I know."
"Your eyes are glitching."
"I said don't."
The lights above us flickered. A line of blue code crawled across the wall, then vanished.
Knox's breathing changed. Short. Hard. Like he was fighting something nobody else could see.
"Look at me," I said.
"No."
"Look at me."
"Get to the rail."
"You're not walking anywhere until you tell me what the system is doing to you."
He slammed me against the pillar.
His forearm pressed across my collarbone, not hard enough to choke me, but enough to make the point. His face was inches from mine. Dust clung to his lashes. There was a thin cut above his eyebrow, and a warm line of blood ran down toward his cheek.
"You want to know?" he said. "The city is inside my head. It has been inside my head since before you stole that core. It tells me where to stand. Who to shoot. When to stop breathing."
My pulse jumped against his arm.
"Then why are you still following orders?"
His eyes dropped to my mouth for the briefest second.
The pause hit harder than the wall.
"Because every time I fight it," he said, quieter now, "your life bar drops."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Nothing about you makes sense."
"Try me."
"You're the only illegal host the network can't erase. You're carrying a core that should've burned through your nervous system. You're linked to me, and every time I resist the code, the system punishes you instead."
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"You chained me to yourself anyway."
"I chained you because if I didn't, the city would have killed you before you reached the next block."
"You could've asked."
"You would've stabbed me."
"You deserved it."
His mouth tightened. "Probably."
For a second, neither of us moved.
His arm was still across me. My hands were flat against his chest, trapped between us. I could feel the heat of him through the fabric, the hard beat under my palm, the tiny tremor he was trying to hide.
Then a voice crackled from the corridor.
"Officer Arden, step away from the courier. Your failure code is active."
Knox flinched.
I felt it under my hands.
"Failure code?" I whispered.
The voice continued. "Compliance will preserve your rank clearance. Resistance will trigger Subject Mara Vey's pain response."
Knox's gaze snapped to mine.
"Don't move," he said.
"That sounds like a threat."
"It is."
"From you or from the city?"
"Both, if you make me choose."
The code pulsed across his eyes. Red. Then white. Then red again.
He pulled away so fast my hands dropped to my sides.
"Knox?"
"Run."
"Not without you."
"Mara, run!"
He raised his weapon.
The barrel pointed at my chest.
My whole body locked.
"You don't want to do that," I said.
"I know."
"Then lower it."
"I can't."
"You can. You just told me the network wants you to shoot me. So don't give it what it wants."
"You think I have a choice?"
"I think you're a coward if you let a line of code hold your finger down."
His expression cracked.
The muzzle shook.
"Call me that again," he said.
"Coward."
His finger tightened.
My status bar flashed.
MARA VEY: HP 8%
Pain ripped down my spine. My knees buckled.
Knox caught me before I hit the floor, dropping the weapon as he dragged me against him.
"Mara!"
Not courier.
Not Subject.
Mara.
His voice tore through the static in my skull.
The red code stuttered.
I gripped his coat. "You said my name."
"Stay with me."
"You said it like you meant it."
"Don't make this difficult."
"You pointed a gun at me. I think I get one question."
"Ask later."
"Do you remember me?"
His breath caught against my hair.
The system voice cut in. "Identity conflict detected. Officer Arden, confirm target designation."
Knox held me tighter. His hand spread across the back of my neck, keeping my face against his shoulder while the hallway shook around us.
"Confirm target designation," the voice repeated.
"No," Knox said.
The word came out rough.
"Confirm target designation."
"No."
His heartbeat slammed against my ear. Mine answered it, too fast and too close.
The shared interface blinked.
KNOX ARDEN: HP 6% MARA VEY: HP 6%
"You're killing us," I said.
"I know."
"Then let go."
"No."
"Knox—"
"If I let go, the code takes over."
"You can't hold me and fight it at the same time."
"Watch me."
He dragged me into the maintenance corridor. We moved with our shoulders pressed together, his hand locked around mine so the interface wouldn't separate us.
Every few steps, the floor lit up with a red warning.
PURGE IN 31 SECONDS.
At the end of the corridor, a blast door blocked the rail access.
Knox shoved his badge into the reader.
Nothing.
"Open," he growled.
The reader flashed red.
"Open!"
A sharp pulse hit both of us.
My legs folded. Knox dropped to one knee beside me.
"That's it," I said. "We're out of time."
"Not yet."
"Your clearance is dead. The door won't open."
"Then break it."
"With what? A bad attitude?"
He looked at the small black core embedded in my palm.
The forbidden upgrade pulsed under my skin.
"With that."
I pulled my hand back. "Absolutely not."
"You used it to cut the safehouse traps."
"I used it for half a second."
"Use it again."
"The last time I used it, it linked us."
"We're already linked."
"No. We're damaged. There's a difference."
"Mara, if that door stays closed, the purge takes both of us."
"And if I push the core too far?"
"We get out."
"That's not what I asked."
His eyes held mine.
The red code crawled over his pupils again. His hand tightened around mine, warm and rough, thumb pressed against my pulse.
"If it goes wrong," he said, "I won't let the network take you."
"You can't promise that."
"I just did."
"You don't even know what the core is doing."
"Neither do you."
"I know enough not to press random buttons in my own hand."
"You stole it for your brother."
My breath stopped.
Knox leaned closer. "You need the payout from the delivery. Your brother needs treatment. If the district wipes you, he loses the only person still paying for it."
"Don't use him against me."
"I'm using the truth."
"You dug through my file."
"I read it."
"You had no right."
"I had every right. You were my target."
"And now?"
He didn't answer.
The blast door gave a deep mechanical groan. Beyond it, purge units moved along the rail. Their metal feet struck the track in a slow, steady rhythm.
KNOX ARDEN: HP 4% MARA VEY: HP 4%
"Now what am I?" I demanded.
His gaze dropped to our joined hands.
"A problem."
"Liar."
"A dangerous problem."
"Closer."
"A problem I can't afford to lose."
The words landed between us.
His thumb stopped moving against my pulse.
I should've pulled away. I should've shoved him back and found another route. Instead, I stood there with his hand around mine, close enough to feel each breath he took.
"Say it again," I whispered.
Knox's jaw flexed. "Don't."
"You don't get to say things like that and hide behind orders."
"Mara."
"Say it."
The blast door shook under a heavy impact.
"I can't lose you," he said.
Then the system screamed.
His back arched. His grip crushed my fingers. Red light flooded the corridor.
"Officer Arden," the network said. "Failure code accepted. Target removal authorized."
Knox's head snapped toward me.
His eyes were no longer fully his.
"Get away from me," he said.
"No."
"Mara, now!"
"You told me you wouldn't let it take me."
"I lied. Run!"
His free hand went for the weapon at his belt.
I slammed my palm against the core.
The interface opened by itself.
A new command appeared beneath the shared life bars.
FORCE SYNC.
WARNING: UNTESTED. WARNING: IDENTITY COLLAPSE PROBABILITY 87%. WARNING: FAILURE WILL ERASE BOTH SUBJECTS.
Knox saw the screen.
"No," he said.
"You said we had no time."
"That's not an escape route."
"It's the only one left."
"Mara, don't touch it."
"If I don't, the purge kills us."
"If you do, it might erase everything you are."
"Then help me remember."
His weapon cleared the holster.
The muzzle rose between us.
The warning countdown hit five seconds.
"Mara," he said, and this time my name sounded like a command, a plea, and a secret he hadn't meant to reveal. "Don't press—"
I locked my fingers around his and drove my thumb toward the glowing FORCE SYNC button. "