Chapter 21 · Rift Protocol - Chapter 21: The Second Pair

"Kess."

Dalen's voice. But he's not moving his lips.

I'm still holding the gun. Smoke curling from the barrel. The glass panel I shot is cracked, spiderwebbing out from the bullet hole, but it didn't shatter. Didn't break.

The core behind it is still lit.

"Kess, drop it."

That's Dalen. The real one. He's on his knees now, hands pressed to his temples, eyes squeezed shut. Blood's trickling from his nose.

"What did you do?" I say.

"Nothing." His voice is tight. "I didn't—"

"Kess."

There it is again. Dalen's voice. Coming from the core.

I take a step back. The gun's still in my hand but it's useless now. One bullet. I used it. I gambled on shattering the glass and hitting the core directly, but the panel's reinforced. Of course it is. Yael wouldn't leave his pet project vulnerable to a single shot.

"You missed," the core says. Dalen's voice. Calm. Almost gentle. "You always miss when it matters."

"Shut up," I say.

"I can't." The core flickers. The second pair of eyes—I saw them open right before I fired—are still there. Overlaid on the neural map that's supposed to be mine. They're not my eyes. They're blue.