Chapter 2

Too close.

"You already know who hired me," I said. "You found the contract in my pocket."

"I found your name on a dead man's kill list. That's different."

"Move the gun and read it again. Maybe the letters changed."

His gray eyes narrowed. No anger. That was worse. Angry men made mistakes. Eli Rook looked like he'd already decided how this ended.

A red timer blinked above the security monitor.

11:47.

I glanced at it. "What's that?"

"Your remaining time."

"Until what?"

He pushed the muzzle higher. Metal pressed into my throat.

"Until the city drones find this room," he said, "or until you tell me why your encrypted signature ordered me to kill Mayor Quinn."

The monitor flashed.

A black-and-white camera feed filled the screen. A woman sprinted through a transit station.

Me.

My breath caught.

On-screen, my double spun toward the camera and raised a compact pistol. Eli stepped into frame, reaching for her.

She shot him in the chest.

I flinched. "That's not real."

"It was recorded three minutes from now."

"No. I don't own a gun."

"You will."

On the screen, Eli crashed against a pillar. The woman who looked exactly like me stood over him, shaking. Then she leaned close and whispered something the camera couldn't catch.

Eli kept the muzzle under my chin.

"Want to guess what you said?"

"I said you talk too much."

"Try again."

"I said you should've moved faster."

His hand closed around my wrist. "You said, 'I'm sorry, Eli.'"

The name hit harder than the gun.

I didn't know him. Not really. I knew his face from every wanted screen in the city. I knew the reward attached to his capture. I knew he'd walked into the courier depot with three dead security officers behind him and dragged me out before the police could arrest me.

I didn't know how he liked to be called.

Yet he said my name like we'd used each other's in private.

"You planted the video," I said.

"The city planted it. I stole the feed."

"Convenient."

"You think I built the prediction network too?"

"I think a wanted killer can fake a lot of things."

His mouth flattened. "Good. Keep thinking that. It might keep you alive."

He caught my other hand and forced both wrists over my head. My shoulder burned. His body pinned me to the door without crushing me, careful and deliberate.

That carefulness should've made him less frightening.

It didn't.

"Three minutes," he said. "Give me a name. After that, I take the key."

"What key?"

"The one hidden under your skin."

My pulse jumped.

His gaze dropped to my left wrist. A thin silver mark showed beneath the skin, shaped like a broken circle.

I'd always thought it was an old scar. It had appeared after I woke from a fever at sixteen. I couldn't remember getting hurt.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure I do. The neural key is why the network can't predict your resets. It's also why every drone in this district is hunting you."

"Resets?"

He leaned closer. Warm breath touched my cheek. The cold muzzle stayed under my chin.

"You really don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

His eyes held mine.

"Dying."

The word hung between us.

The timer changed.

11:03.

Something slammed into the other side of the door. Once. Then again.

Eli released one wrist and reached for a black restraint on his belt.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't run when the drones arrive."

"Try it and lose the hand."

"You already tried that."

I twisted free and swung. He caught my wrist before I could connect. The restraint snapped shut with a sharp click.

A blue band of light wrapped around my skin.

Pain shot up my arm.

I drove my knee toward him. Eli turned his hip and took the hit. His shoulder knocked mine. His face came within inches of my own.

"Stop fighting me."

"Stop touching me."

"Then stop trying to get yourself killed."

"You're holding a gun to my throat."

"Because you keep lying."

I yanked against the restraint. The blue band tightened.

Eli glanced at the monitor. "It locks onto the key. Get more than six feet away, and it shocks both of us."

I stared at him. "Both?"

He clipped the other end to a matching band around his wrist.

"Now we're partners."

"You call this partnership?"

"No. I call it a leash."

The blunt answer almost threw me off balance.

A siren screamed overhead. Warning text flooded the monitor.

PREDICTED TARGET: MARA VALE.

THREAT CLASS: MASS CASUALTY.

AUTHORIZED RESPONSE: TERMINATION.

A second line appeared.

TIME TO EVENT: 10:21.

"Mass casualty?" I pulled at the band. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means the city thinks you're about to kill everyone in the west transit hub."

"I deliver packages."

"You delivered the mayor's death order."

"I never saw that contract."

"You signed it."

"Then show me the signature."

Eli reached inside his coat and pulled out a thin glass card. The surface lit under his thumb. Encrypted code spun across it.

At the bottom sat a signature.

Mara Vale.

Not typed. Not copied. The code carried the same tiny break in the final loop as my handwritten signature.

My stomach dropped.

"That's fake."

"Say something new."

"You stole my courier profile."

"I did. The network rejected the copy."

"Then someone else used it."

"Someone with your neural key."

I looked at the silver mark under my skin. "Why would I hire you to kill the mayor?"

"Because Mayor Quinn is about to expose the people who made you."

The words hit wrong.

Not because they made sense. Because some buried part of me recognized them.

Pain stabbed behind my right eye.

I grabbed the steel door.

White lights.

A child's voice counting backward.

A hand pressing the silver mark beneath my skin.

Three.

Two.

One.

Nothing.

"Mara." Eli's voice cut through the memory. "Stay with me."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"Fine. Fall apart on your own time. We've got nine minutes."

He dragged me toward the central console. The restraint gave us no choice. Six feet. Maybe less.

His shoulder brushed mine with every step. Each contact sent a cold spark through my nerves.

Ridiculous.

He had a gun, a kill contract, and a glowing leash on my wrist. I should've been planning an escape, not noticing the warmth of his hand when he caught my elbow.

I slapped his fingers away. "Don't handle me."

"Then walk straight."

"I was walking straight until you chained me to a murderer."

"You chained yourself to me when you stole the key."

I stopped. The restraint jerked tight between us.

"I stole nothing."

"You broke into the network vault at 02:14. You took the key. You erased six minutes of security footage. Then you sent me a message."

"What message?"

Eli turned the glass card toward me. A recording opened.

My voice filled the room.

"Eli Rook. If you're hearing this, I failed again. Don't trust the city. Don't trust me. Find the mayor before the thirteenth—"

The recording cut out.

I stared at the card.

My voice sounded rougher. Lower. Exhausted.

It knew his name. It knew something called the thirteenth.

"Play it again."

"No."

"Play it."

"You don't get to order me around."

I slammed my free hand into the console. The card flew from his fingers and skidded across the metal surface.

Eli caught my wrist before I could reach it.

His fingers closed around mine. Firm. Warm. His thumb pressed against my pulse.

For half a second, neither of us moved.

His eyes dropped to my mouth, then snapped back to mine.

"You keep doing that," he said.

"Doing what?"

"Looking at me like you want me dead, then acting surprised when I touch you."

I stepped closer instead of away.

Then I drove my forehead into his nose.

Eli cursed and staggered back.

I snatched the card.

"I don't look at you like anything," I said. "I look at exits."

Blood touched his upper lip. He wiped it away with two fingers and stared at the red smear.

"You head-butted me."

"You survived. Congratulations."

"That's going on the list."

"Make it short."

The wall beside us exploded inward.

Eli shoved me down as metal fragments tore through the control room. A drone hovered outside the hole, its black camera eye glowing red. A pulse weapon charged beneath it.

"Move!"

He hauled me behind the console. The restraint snapped tight between us. My knees hit the floor. Eli's body covered mine, one hand braced beside my head.

The drone fired.

The console blew apart. Heat slapped my face. Eli twisted and took the worst of the blast across his back.

He grunted but stayed upright.

"Are you hurt?" I demanded.

"Ask me after we leave."

"You took that for me."

"Don't make it romantic. I need you alive."

"You could've shoved me aside."

He looked down at me. His face was inches away, his breath uneven.

"I know."

For one stupid second, I forgot the drone.

Then Eli pulled me up and fired through the hole. The drone snapped sideways.

Another one appeared behind it.

"How many?" I asked.

"Enough."

"You said the key could stop them."

"It can. If you let me access it."

"Access how?"

"Put your hand on the console."

"And then?"

"It reads your neural pattern and opens the emergency route."

"And steals my memories?"

His silence answered first.

I shoved his gun hand aside. "You knew."

"I suspected."

"You knew enough to keep me ignorant."

"You were busy trying to kill me."

"I've never tried to kill you!"

The monitor flickered.

The image of me shooting Eli appeared again.

This time, the camera angle changed.

I saw the full scene. My double stood in the transit hub with her pistol raised. Eli stepped in front of a group of civilians.

He wasn't attacking her.

He was shielding them.

My double shot him anyway.

Her face turned toward the camera.

Her lips moved before the audio came through.

"I'm sorry, Eli."

I took one step back.

The restraint snapped tight. Eli caught my waist before I fell. His palm locked against my side, holding me against him.

"Look at me," he said.

"That was me."

"It looked like you."

"Same face. Same voice. My signature."

"Not the same choice."

"You don't know what choices I make."

"I know you just refused to let me use the key, even though it might save us."

"That's not proof. That's survival."

"Then survive this."

He turned me toward the damaged console and pressed my marked wrist against the cracked interface.

The silver scar lit blue.

Pain punched through my arm.

The room split into three images.

In one, I stood beside Eli.

In another, I knelt over him with a gun.

In the last, I was alone, screaming at an empty wall.

"Get it off!" I shouted.

"Hold still."

"Eli!"

"Mara, listen to me. The network is asking for a command. Give it one."

"I don't know how!"

"Tell it what you want."

"I want you dead!"

"Try again."

A drone locked onto us. Its red targeting beam crawled across Eli's chest.

He saw it and stepped in front of me.

"No," I said.

"Mara—"

"Move."

"You want proof? Here's your chance."

He caught my face with both hands and forced me to meet his eyes. His gloves were warm from the weapon. One thumb brushed my cheek, quick and rough.

"When the next shot comes, don't fight the reset," he said. "Watch what happens. Remember me."

"What reset?"

His eyes stayed locked on mine.

"The one you've already survived twelve times."

The words cracked something open.

Twelve flashes hit at once.

A stairwell.

A bridge.

A burning car.

Eli's hand in mine.

Eli shouting my name.

My own body falling—

The targeting beam turned red.

Eli's grip tightened on my face.

"Mara, when I say run, you tell the key to—"

The drone's weapon began to charge, and the silver mark on my wrist answered with a command I didn't know I remembered—