Chapter 14 · The Ticket Before Midnight

"You're not getting on that tram."

Mara was already halfway down the platform stairs. Jace caught her wrist and she spun back hard enough that her jacket whipped against the railing.

"Let go."

"You heard what Nia said." He didn't let go. "Don't trust the reset. That includes whatever's running under the transit tunnels at eleven fifty."

"My partner's down there." She twisted her arm but his grip held. "And if you don't move your hand in the next three seconds I'm breaking your thumb."

"Your partner's been gone for two weeks. You think he's just waiting on a platform?" Jace pulled her back a step. The tram station was empty except for a guy sleeping against a ticket machine and a woman smoking by the yellow line. The clock above the tunnel read 11:52. "You go down there, you don't come back."

Mara's free hand went to her belt. Not the gun. The file folder, bent and coffee-stained, that she'd been carrying since she kicked in his door. She pulled it out and shoved it against his chest.

"Look at the timestamp."

He caught the folder before it hit the ground. Flipped it open.