Chapter 14 · A Dead Girl's Print

The scanner keeps blinking.

GHOST SEVEN BIO-TRACE DETECTED.

Keira's got maybe three seconds before Taren sees it. The handheld device sits on the edge of his desk, screen up, flashing that death sentence in clean white text. He's turned away, pulling something from the wall locker. His shoulders are tight. He knows something's wrong.

She moves.

Not the way she wants to. Not the way her body's screaming to move—fast, efficient, muscle memory from five years of missions that never happened. She makes it clumsy. Knocks her elbow into the desk corner, hisses through her teeth, and the scanner tips.

It doesn't fall.

She grabs for it. Misses. Grabs again, and this time her fingers catch the edge and the whole thing clatters to the floor. The screen goes black on impact.

"Careful." Taren's voice comes from behind her.

She freezes. Looks down at the scanner. The casing cracked. Screen's dead.

"Sorry." She doesn't sound sorry. She sounds scared. That part's not hard to fake. "I didn't mean—"

"Pick it up."

She crouches. Her hand's shaking. That's real too.