Chapter 23 · The Broadcast

"Tavi Quill. Open up."

I wiped the blood off my cheek and stared at the copper switch.

Three minutes. That's all I had before the Crownstack kicked down the door. The rich channel was still live, still waiting for me to send their buyer's statement and walk away with four hundred thousand crowns.

The signal room smelled like burnt wires and old coffee. A red light blinked above the door. Once. Twice.

Boots hammered through the service tunnel outside.

I checked the payment screen again.

TRANSFER COMPLETE: 400,000 CROWNS.

My mouth went dry.

All I had to do was hit one button. Send the grain-shipment statement. Disappear into some quiet district where nobody knew my name.

Rich enough to never look back.

The door shook.

"Tavi," the voice said. "We know you're in there."

"That's awkward," I muttered. "I was hoping to keep it mysterious."

I pulled the payment chip from the console and looked at the black broadcast board. Elias's testimony sat inside it—compressed into a file smaller than my thumbnail. Nia had added the Vault records. Names. Orders. Execution lists.