Chapter 10 · Pay With a Death

"You want me to read it? Give me his first death."

Mira didn't even look at the mask. She looked at Calder. Like he was the price tag.

"Excuse me?" I snapped. My hand was still locked around the cold, humming device. It buzzed against my palm like it wanted to bite. "You said you could decode it. That was the deal."

"The deal changed," Mira said. She leaned back against the archive table, arms crossed. The dealer smile was gone. "You brought me a memory mask from Zero. That's not a toy, courier. That's a loaded gun. You want me to pull the trigger? I want something real."

Calder hadn't moved. He was half a step behind me. Too close. I could feel the heat radiating off him, tense as a wire pulled to the breaking point.

"No," he said. Flat. Cold. The Officer voice.

"No?" Mira tilted her head. "You sure? Because without me, that thing eats her brain the second she puts it on. And you—you don't get to know how you died the first time."

"You don't touch my head," Calder said.

"I don't need to touch it, Officer. I need the memory. The first one.