Chapter 28 · Undercity Broker - Chapter 28: Someone Upstairs

Lin's wrist still burned where the girl had grabbed him. Your mother is alive. The words looped in his head like a broken track. He didn't have time to process them because Su Jin was ten feet behind him and closing fast.

He was on the roof of the old train car market, three stories up from the main floor. Metal groaned under his boots. The evidence chip was in his left pocket. The curse mark on his arm was hot.

Su Jin stopped at the edge of the access ladder. "Lin. Don't move."

He turned. Her face was hard to read in the dim overhead work lights. She had her knife out but held low. Not a threat yet. Just ready.

"I'm not running," he said.

That was half true. He wasn't running from her. He was running toward the thing the girl had said. Above the market. His mother's old room. The one he'd been too scared to go back to for three years.

"Then what are you doing up here?"

"Looking."

"For what?"

He didn't answer. She took a step closer. The rooftop was narrow, containers stacked on either side. Nowhere to go but forward or down.