Chapter 8 · Wasteland Wire

"Put it down."

Kade’s fingers clamped around my wrist before I could pocket the drive. Hard.

"Get your hand off me," I snapped. My knuckles were white around that silver stick. It was still warm from Nox’s palm. "You said I get to choose. Nox said it’s my mom’s. So it’s mine."

"I said you don’t trade your only leverage for a ghost story." He didn’t let go. His thumb pressed right into my pulse, pinning me in place. "You walk now, you die at checkpoint two. We need that drive intact."

Nox leaned against the sparking console like this was dinner theater. Hands in pockets. That stupid half-smile.

"Ooh, domestic dispute. Love it." He looked at me. "Maya, sweetheart, he’s not technically wrong. That drive? Encrypted to hell. Useless without the lab mainframe. My intel? That gets you past Iris’s friends with your head still attached. That’s value."

Iris hadn’t moved from the doorway. But her rifle had. Just an inch. Enough to make the hair on my neck stand up.

"Thirty seconds, Reeves," Iris said. Flat. Tired. "Sentiment or survival. You can’t afford both."

The drive dug into my palm.