Chapter 10 · Hunter Protocol

"You've got twenty-nine minutes." I shoved the interface screen toward her face. "Want to tell me why?"

Ada didn't flinch. She was leaning against the corridor wall, arms crossed, watching the countdown like it was someone else's problem.

"Maybe I pissed off the wrong person," she said.

"Maybe you pissed off me."

"You don't have the clearance to mark a target, Kane." She pushed off the wall. "Neither do I. Someone else is playing."

Twenty-eight minutes. The red numbers burned into the air between us.

"So we wait it out," I said. "See who comes."

"No." She moved past me, fast. "We move. Now."

I grabbed her wrist. She spun, and suddenly there was a blade an inch from my throat.

"Don't," she said.

I didn't let go. "You run, I lose the only person who knows how this place works."

"You lose me, you live longer." The blade pressed closer. I felt the cold edge against my pulse. "I'm the target. Anyone hunting points is coming for me. You want to stand next to that?"

"I want answers."

"Then let go."

I did. She pulled back, sheathed the blade somewhere I didn't see.

"Fine," she said. "You get one.