Chapter 12 · The Spark

"Get down!" Nolan slammed Evelyn to the floor as the first gunshot cracked over their heads.

Concrete dust burst against her cheek. Six rifles fired at once, chewing through the metal rail where her skull had been.

"Nolan!"

"Stay behind me."

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

He shoved up on one arm. Blood ran from the cut over his eyebrow, but he barely seemed to notice. His fingers were still locked around hers. The neural contract burned under their skin, hot and tight, like a wire pulled through bone.

Across the pit, Rusk lifted one hand.

"Alive!" he shouted. "The woman too. If you hit the blood source, I start cutting oxygen from the boy in ten-second intervals."

Evelyn raised her pistol over Nolan's shoulder and fired.

One of the guards spun back with a cry, dropping behind a steel support.

"That was not a warning," she yelled.

Nolan glanced at her. "You hit him?"

"I was aiming for his head."

"Remind me not to annoy you."

"You already did."

Another burst of gunfire ripped through the pit. Nolan dragged her behind a rusted pump housing.