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"Get off me, or I swear I'll break your arm." Kane's forearm pinned my wrist to the roof while the first explosion punched through the building below us.
The concrete jumped. A row of solar panels snapped loose and skidded toward the edge.
Kane didn't even look down. His gray eyes stayed on mine, cold and locked in.
"You can try," he said. "But if you move that core another inch, it cooks your nervous system."
"Funny. You looked less worried when you were trying to cut my throat."
"I still am."
Another blast shook the roof. Dust spat from the vents. Somewhere below, people screamed, and the sound vanished under the rising whine of engines.
I shoved my knee between us and twisted hard. Kane caught my leg before I could land the strike. His glove closed around my ankle.
Too fast. Too strong. Too calm.
I hated that my body noticed all three.
"Let go," I snapped.
"Tell your combat core to stop hijacking my targeting feed."
"Tell your company to stop shooting at me."
"They're not supposed to be here."
The words came out flat, but his grip tightened.
That got my attention.
Kane rolled away and came up in one smooth motion, black coat snapping around his knees. The monoblade stayed in his hand. Its edge hummed inches from my jaw.
Behind him, three armored drones rose over the roofline.
Their red optics swept across us.
Then all three weapons charged.
"Down!" Kane barked.
He grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me behind a ventilation block. Blue-white rounds tore across the roof. Concrete burst over my head. One panel exploded into glittering shards.
I hit the ground shoulder-first.
"You pull like a damn forklift," I said.
"You complain like a civilian."
"I was a civilian before your murder club installed itself in my spine."
Kane glanced at the thin black interface lines pulsing beneath the skin at my neck. The lines weren't supposed to be visible. They glowed anyway, matching the hard beat under my jaw.
His gaze stayed there half a second too long.
"Don't stare," I said.
"I'm checking the sync."
"Check your own face. It looks like it needs help."
A drone fired again. Kane rose, blade flashing. The round split against the monoblade and scattered into hot sparks.
He crossed the gap before the drones could cycle. One slash cut through the first machine's weapon arm. He kicked the drone into the second. Metal slammed into metal, and both dropped behind the roof's raised lip.
The third drone swung toward me.
My vision filled with red text.
[THREAT LOCK]
[RESPONSE WINDOW: 0.8 SECONDS]
My hand moved before I told it to.
I snatched a loose power cable from the concrete and drove it into the drone's exposed port. The cable sparked. The combat core pushed through my arm, feeding me angles, timing, force.
I ripped sideways.
The drone tore open with a sharp crack and collapsed at my boots.
For one beautiful second, everything slowed.
I could see the fragments hanging in the air. Hear Kane's breath behind me. Feel every pulse in the roof beneath my shoes.
Then the core dumped the stolen power back into my skull.
My knees folded.
Kane caught me before I hit.
"Vera."
His voice sounded too close. His palm pressed between my shoulder blades, heat cutting through my jacket. I grabbed his sleeve because the roof had started tilting.
"Don't use my name like you own it."
"Stand up."
"I would love to. The floor disagrees."
"Your core is overclocking again."
"No kidding."
He pulled my face toward him. His fingers closed around my chin, firm enough to stop me from looking away.
"Listen to me. If you spike past the red line, the system will burn through your motor control first. Then your memory. Then—"
"Then I die. Yeah. Dex already gave me the sales pitch."
"Dex gave you a guess. I'm giving you the real number."
The way he said it made my stomach tighten.
"You have thirty-six minutes," he said. "Maybe less."
I stared at him.
"You said the core could be removed."
"It can."
"And?"
Kane's thumb shifted against my jaw. The touch was controlled, clinical. My pulse didn't care.
"Removing it now stops your heart."
"So you're saying I need you."
"I'm saying I need you alive long enough to remove it."
"That sounded almost sweet."
"Don't mistake a requirement for concern."
"Don't mistake a pretty face for permission."
His eyes sharpened.
For half a beat, neither of us moved. My hand was still twisted in his coat. His fingers were still on my face. Heat crawled up the side of my neck, right under the glowing interface lines.
The system chirped.
[NEURAL CONTACT DETECTED]
[UNAUTHORIZED LINK AVAILABLE]
Kane looked at the text only I could see.
"What did it say?"
"You can see it?"
"No. But your pupils changed."
"Creepy."
"Vera."
"It wants a link."
His expression went still.
"How long?"
"Thirty seconds before the drones reboot."
"No. How long for the link?"
"It doesn't say."
"Then don't accept it."
"Great plan. Your team is bombing the roof, my spine is running stolen military code, and you want me to wait politely."
Kane released my chin and drew his sidearm.
"Stay here."
"Where are you going?"
"To stop the next wave."
"And leave me with the thing trying to eat my brain?"
"You said you didn't need me."
"I said you were annoying. Different problem."
He turned toward the roof access door.
I caught his wrist.
The instant our skin touched, the world slammed sideways.
A violent pulse tore through my chest. Kane staggered, and I felt the same shock inside my own ribs a heartbeat later. His breathing hitched. Mine matched it.
The red system text changed.
[BIOMETRIC COMPATIBILITY: 91%]
[HOST PAIRING DETECTED]
[DEADLOCK PROTOCOL AVAILABLE]
Kane looked down at our joined hands.
"Let go."
"You first."
"Vera, let go now."
"Why? You scared?"
His jaw clenched.
"Because if that link completes, you won't be able to run from me."
"I haven't been running from you. I've been trying not to get killed by you."
"Same difference."
The roof door blew inward.
A squad in matte armor poured through the smoke. Their helmets carried the white vertical mark of Helix Authority.
Kane's gun came up.
The soldiers shouted over each other.
"Cross! Drop the weapon!"
"Target confirmed!"
"Take the courier alive!"
Kane shoved me behind him.
"You know these idiots?" I asked.
"They know me."
"That isn't an answer."
"It is the only one you get."
The squad opened fire.
Kane moved like the bullets belonged to him. He dragged me left, fired twice, and cut down the nearest rifle. I ducked behind an equipment crate while he drove into the squad's center.
The link between us stretched.
Not physically. Worse.
Every time he moved, I felt the direction in my muscles. Every time he took a hit, pain flashed through my shoulder. When one soldier slammed a shock baton into Kane's side, my teeth clenched around a cry.
"Stop getting hit!" I yelled.
Kane elbowed the soldier in the helmet and sent him over the ledge.
"Stop distracting me!"
"You're welcome!"
A second soldier aimed at my back.
Kane's head snapped toward him.
"Vera, left!"
I threw myself sideways. The shot burned past my ear. Kane crossed the roof and took the soldier down, but three more rifles locked onto him.
I saw the angles before he did.
The core painted a clean path through the enemy line.
"Kane! Drop!"
He dropped.
I grabbed the emergency release on the roof crane and slammed my palm against it. The crane arm swung hard, smashing through the squad. Armor cracked. Weapons flew. One soldier rolled to the edge and froze there, fingers clawing at the concrete.
Kane stared at me from the wreckage.
"You could've killed them."
"They were shooting at us."
"That wasn't an answer."
"It was the one you get."
His mouth tightened. Almost a smile. Almost.
Then the system flashed again.
[DEADLOCK PROTOCOL: INITIATE]
[REQUIRED: DUAL CONSENT]
[FAILURE CONDITION: BOTH HOSTS TERMINATE]
[LINK DURATION: 06:00:00]
[PRIMARY HOST: VERA VANCE]
[SECONDARY HOST: KANE CROSS]
[SHARED DAMAGE: ACTIVE]
Kane read my face.
"Tell me."
"It says we get six hours."
"For what?"
"The link."
"And the price?"
I turned the display toward him, though he couldn't see it. "If one of us dies, the other follows."
"No."
"That's what it says."
"Reject it."
"Then I have maybe thirty minutes before the core cooks me."
"I can stabilize you without linking."
"Can you?"
He didn't answer fast enough.
I stepped closer. His coat brushed my knuckles. The air between us felt charged, tight, full of everything neither of us wanted to say.
"You can't," I said. "You need the link too."
"I need access to the combat core."
"Why?"
"Because it carries classified data."
"There it is. Not concern. Not rescue. Data."
"You want honesty? Fine. My entire unit was erased three years ago. This core was in the same program. Someone buried the evidence, and I'm going to dig it up."
His voice stayed quiet, but the words landed hard.
"And I'm your key."
"You're the lock."
"That supposed to make me feel better?"
"No. It's supposed to make you understand why I can't let anyone else take you."
A deep mechanical roar rolled over the roof.
Kane looked up.
More drones rose between the towers. Too many this time. Black bodies. Heavy cannons. Corporate kill squad hardware.
He grabbed my arm.
"Choose."
"You don't get to order me into a death pact."
"If you don't choose, the core chooses for you."
"And if I sign?"
"You stay within range of me. You follow my commands during combat. You don't tamper with the link."
"And you?"
"I keep you alive."
"You swear?"
His gaze dropped to my mouth, then snapped back to my eyes.
"I don't swear."
"Then no deal."
The first heavy cannon charged.
Kane stepped in until my back touched the vent block. His body blocked the wind and half the battlefield. One hand braced beside my head. The other held the gun against his thigh.
His breath brushed my cheek.
"Fine," he said. "I swear."
My pulse kicked.
"Say it properly."
"You really want to do this now?"
"I want to know what you're promising before I let your brain hook into mine."
His fingers closed around my wrist again. Heat moved through the contact, followed by the strange echo of his heartbeat inside my chest.
"I swear to keep Vera Vance alive for the length of the link," he said. "I won't remove the core. I won't hand her to Helix. I won't abandon her during combat."
"Add one more."
"What?"
"You don't kill me when the six hours end."
His eyes went flat.
"If the link ends cleanly, you walk."
"Say it."
Kane leaned closer. His forehead nearly touched mine.
"I won't kill you when this ends."
The system waited.
[DUAL CONSENT REQUIRED]
I could hear the cannons charging. Feel Kane's grip around my wrist. Feel his pulse hammering against mine like the link had already started.
"My turn," I said. "I swear not to run, sell you out, or rip the link apart."
"You'd better include the part where you follow my combat calls."
"Don't push it."
"Vera."
"I swear to follow your calls when bullets are flying. Happy?"
"No."
"Good."
I pressed my palm to his.
The system accepted us.
[DEADLOCK PROTOCOL ACCEPTED]
[NEURAL BRIDGE FORMING]
Pain cracked through my skull.
Kane sucked in a breath at the same time. His hand crushed mine, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to keep me anchored.
I saw a dark room through his eyes. A row of empty chairs. A soldier's hand sliding off a table. A red corporate seal burning across a file.
Then the memory vanished.
Kane saw something from me, too. I knew it by the way his shoulders locked.
"Get out," I whispered.
"I didn't choose that memory."
"Get out of my head."
"You were in mine first."
"Liar."
"You think I wanted this?"
The link tightened.
Our biometrics flashed across my vision in matching columns.
[HEART RATE: SYNCED]
[PAIN RESPONSE: SHARED]
[COMBAT ACCESS: LIMITED]
[COUNTDOWN: 05:59:42]
Kane's pulse beat inside my chest.
Fast. Controlled. Angry.
Mine answered it.
He lifted his free hand and touched two fingers to the side of my neck, right over the glowing lines. His touch was careful now. That scared me more than the blade had.
"You're shaking," he said.
"You're the one shaking."
"I'm not."
"I can feel it."
His eyes held mine.
"Then stop looking so pleased."
"I'm not pleased. I'm enjoying the part where the terrifying corporate assassin needs me to stay alive."
"You enjoy dangerous things."
"I deliver packages through minefields for rent money. What gave it away?"
The last drones dropped lower.
Kane pulled me away from the vent and toward the roof access hatch.
"Move."
"Where?"
"Underground transit line."
"You know a way down?"
"I know three."
"Which one doesn't end with you shooting me?"
"The one where you keep up."
We ran.
The link made every step feel doubled. My feet hit the concrete, and his boots answered inside my nerves. When he vaulted a pipe, my body copied the motion. When I slipped, his hand caught my waist and hauled me upright.
His palm stayed there one second too long.
"Don't touch me unless I'm falling," I said.
"You were falling."
"I was adjusting."
"You were face-planting."
"Keep talking and I'll test whether shared damage works both ways."
He shoved open the hatch.
A red targeting beam slid across the roof behind us.
Kane stopped.
I crashed into his back.
"What now?"
He looked over his shoulder.
"Don't move."
"You say that like it ever works."
He grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me under the hatch as the roof exploded.
The blast threw us into the maintenance tunnel. Kane landed first and took my weight across his chest. His arm locked around my ribs. My cheek pressed against the hard plate under his coat.
Above us, the hatch slammed shut.
For three seconds, there was only the sound of both our breathing.
Then the system screamed.
[EXTERNAL COMMAND OVERRIDE]
[RECOVERY ORDER REVOKED]
[ELIMINATION ORDER ACTIVE]
Kane went still.
"What does it say?" he asked.
I pushed off his chest and looked at the red text.
"They revoked your recovery order."
"Read the rest."
"Elimination order active."
His eyes narrowed.
"For the core?"
"No."
The tunnel lights flickered on one by one. A corporate transmission forced itself into my vision, bright enough to sting.
[HELIX AUTHORITY PRIORITY TARGETS]
[VERA VANCE — CORE HOST]
[KANE CROSS — INTERNAL TRAITOR]
[BOUNTY STATUS: LIVE]
[TERMINATION WINDOW: 00:04:59]
Kane rose and pulled me up with him.
Above the tunnel, engines screamed. The roof hatch turned white as a searchlight flooded it.
I looked at him.
"They're not coming to retrieve you."
"I know."
"They're going to erase both of us."
"I know."
The searchlight shifted, finding us through the hatch seams.
Kane drew his gun and stepped in front of me.
"Stay behind me."
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
"Then ask better."
His hand found mine in the dark. Our pulses slammed together.
Outside, the gunship doors opened.
A targeting tone chirped once.
Kane raised his weapon toward the hatch and said, "When I tell you to run, you run, because if you stay here—"