Chapter 11 · Ghost in the Suture

"Put it down, Vera." Kane caught my wrist before the injector touched my neck.

The military stabilizer hung between us, its silver barrel flashing under the clinic lights. One dose. One chance. My spine burned hot enough to make my teeth ache, while Dex lay strapped to the cracked examination table with a black line crawling up his throat.

"Let go." I twisted hard.

Kane's fingers tightened. "Your core is at ninety-four percent thermal load. At one hundred, it cooks the nerves around your spine. You won't get a second warning."

"Dex is at thirty beats per minute."

"And you're at twenty minutes before the remote wipe." His face stayed cold, but his thumb pressed against my pulse. He felt the tremor there. "You use that injector on him, you die."

"You say that like it's your decision."

"Right now, it is."

I drove my knee toward his leg. Kane shifted before I could connect, turning my body into the edge of the metal cabinet. Pain snapped through my hip. The injector almost slipped from my hand.

"Damn you," I hissed.

"Get in line."

The clinic's old monitor shrieked. Dex's body jerked against the restraints.

"Vera.