Chapter 27 · The Final Pulse

"Take your hand off the gate control, Mara, or I swear I’ll drag you away from it."

Kane’s hand closed around my wrist before I could pull the lever. His grip was firm, not crushing, but the metal band around his palm pressed hard enough to stop me.

Behind us, thirty-two children waited in the broken transit station. Some held plastic bags. Some held nothing at all. Oren stood between them with a stolen access card in one hand and a shock baton in the other.

The city gate was six feet from my face. Beyond it, the outer road ran through the dead district and into open country.

Freedom sat behind a panel Kane could lock with one thumb.

"You said the gates were yours," I said. "You said you could open them."

"I can."

"Then move."

His jaw tightened. A thin red line blinked beneath the skin at his throat. The contract was still there, counting down the last sliver of time between our pulses.

"The second that gate opens, every patrol in Sector One gets our location," he said. "Your brother is on their list. Oren is on their list.