Chapter 53 · She didn’t. “Don’t get sentimental,” she whispered. “I

She didn’t.

“Don’t get sentimental,” she whispered.

“I wasn’t.”

“Your pulse says otherwise.”

“Your hand is shaking.”

“It’s not.”

“It is.”

“Shut up.”

The lead soldier said, “Officer Quinn, step away. The target is classified as a live contamination event.”

“Funny,” Mira said. “Yesterday he was Ashport’s most wanted terrorist.”

“He still is.”

“Today he’s a contamination event?”

“Corporate classifications change.”

“People don’t.”

The soldier aimed directly at her head.

My body moved before I could think. I pulled Mira behind me and reached for the Current.

Pain answered first.

It ripped through my chest and dropped me to one knee.

Mira grabbed the back of my coat. “No. Don’t use it.”

“They’re going to fire.”

“Let them aim.”

“That’s your strategy?”

“Wait.”

“Wait for what?”

Her grip tightened. “For me to lie.”

She stepped around me and faced the soldiers again.

“Stand down,” she ordered.

The lead soldier laughed through his mask. “You don’t command a wipe unit.”

“I do when I’m the one who called you.”

I looked at her. “You called them?”

“Not now.”

“You brought them here.”

“Not now, Reid.”

The squad leader’s head turned toward her. “You requested a full purge.