Chapter 6 · Void Bound: The Forbidden Gene - Chapter 6: She's The Beacon

"Screw your correction," I spat. My legs wouldn't lock. That white buzz was back behind my eyes, the circuits misfiring all the way down my spine.

Kael dragged me sideways off the glowing plate. His jacket sleeve ripped against my cheek. He smelled like sweat and hot wire.

"Can you stand? Hey, look at me!" he shouted right in my face. "Zero! Eyes on me!"

"I can stand! Let go!" I shoved him, but I needed his arm to stay upright. My knees kept folding.

"You can't stand for shit," he snapped. "You're seizing. Hold onto me."

"I don't need you to carry me!"

"You do right now, so shut up and hold on!" He threw my arm over his shoulder. His body was solid, hot through his shirt. Too close. I could feel his pulse hammering against my temple.

The plate behind us flared, then slammed down with a hydraulic hiss. Empty.

"Calibration failed," the voice said. "Beacon signal unstable. Alerting retrieval."

Beacon. The word snagged.

"What did it just call me?" I breathed. My voice shook and I hated it.

Kael didn't answer. He was already pulling me toward the service ladder bolted to the pit wall. Rust and old blood on the rungs.

"Kael. What beacon?" I grabbed his collar and forced him to look at me. "Answer me."

"Not now," he said. His eyes flicked to the ceiling of the pit. To the dark. "We have to climb. Right now."

"Don't you 'not now' me!" I slammed my palm against the wall next to his head. The clang rang out. "Am I the beacon? Is that what they're tracking?"

"Yes!" he finally barked. "Yes, you are! Your spine is broadcasting! Every Syndicate drone in orbit can see you! That's why they dropped us in this hole - you're a walking flare!"

The pit lights turned red. A siren started to wail, low and sick.

"Great," I laughed, and it sounded cracked. "So I'm not even a weapon. I'm a damn flashlight."

"You're not a flashlight," he said, already pushing me toward the ladder. "You're bait. Climb!"

"Don't order me around!"

"Then move your ass!" He shoved my hip up to the first rung. His hands were rough, urgent. "Go! I'll be right behind you!"

I grabbed the rung. Metal bit into my palms. My arms screamed - the pain circuits were still firing, making every muscle feel like it was tearing.

"Faster!" he yelled from below me. His hand was on my ankle, then my calf, pushing, steadying. "Don't look down!"

"I'm not looking down, I'm trying not to fall on you!" I hissed through my teeth. Sweat ran into my eyes. "Why is it so damn hot in here?"

"Because they're venting the shaft! They're trying to cook us out!" He was breathing hard right under me. So close I could feel his breath on the back of my knee. "Keep going! Two more levels!"

The siren got louder. And then a new voice cut through it. Smooth. Amused. Familiar in a way that made my stomach drop.

"Zero, sweetheart, you are making this so dramatic," Victor said over the pit speakers. His voice echoed off the rock. "You were designed to be recovered, not to run. Do you know how expensive you are?"

My hand slipped. I caught myself, knuckles white.

"Don't listen to him!" Kael shouted up at me. "Keep climbing!"

"Oh, Kael is there too," Victor went on, delighted. "Perfect. The father and his little mistake, together again. Zero, darling, did he tell you? You're not the prototype. You're the disposable one. Version seven. We have eight, nine, and ten already growing. You're just the one we let go to see how far you'd run before you broke."

My chest caved. Not pain circuits. Something worse.

"He's lying," Kael said, but his voice was tight. Too tight.

"Am I?" Victor laughed. "Check her readout, Kael. You built the kill-switch, you know the signal. She's broadcasting on the disposal frequency. We don't retrieve disposables. We just watch them burn out. Unless... you bring her back for recalibration, of course."

"Shut up!" I screamed at the ceiling. At the voice. My whole body was shaking, not just from the circuits now. "I'm not disposable!"

"Then prove it, love," Victor purred. "Stop climbing. Let the drones do their job."

Kael's hand grabbed my boot and held hard. Anchored me.

"Hey! Hey, look at me!" he ordered. His face was right below mine, eyes burning up at me. "You are not disposable. You hear me? You are not what he says you are."

"Then what am I?" I choked out. My forehead dropped to the cold rung. I was breathing too fast. "If I'm just a signal, if I'm just bait, what am I?"

"You're Zero," he said, fierce and low. "You're the one who punched a Syndicate hound in the throat yesterday. You're the one who hasn't killed me even though you want to. You're not a number on his screen."

His hand slid up from my boot to my calf, warm, firm. Not letting go.

"You don't get to decide what I am," I whispered.

"No," he said. "You do. So climb. Show him."

I bared my teeth and pulled. Up. Another rung. Another. My shoulders were on fire. His hand stayed on my leg, pushing, supporting my dead weight when my arms gave out.

"That's it," he panted. "That's my girl. Come on. Almost there."

"Don't call me that," I gasped, but I didn't kick his hand off. I needed it. I hated that I needed it.

"Too bad," he shot back, and there was a grin in his voice even while we were dying. "You're stuck with me."

The top of the shaft was a square of grey sky. Rain? Dust? Wind howled down.

I hauled myself over the lip and collapsed onto dead rock, coughing. Kael scrambled up beside me, rolling onto his back, chest heaving.

We made it. Out of the pit.

For half a second, I thought we actually did it.

Then the sky tore open.

Not clouds. Drones. Hundreds of them, dropping through the haze, lights blinking red, all turning at once. All pointing at me. At us.

A targeting tone screamed, high and locked.

"Oh hell," Kael breathed. He sat up, staring. "They're already here. They were waiting."

"Because of me," I said. My beacon. My spine humming like a live wire. "They followed me."

"Zero, listen," he said, and grabbed my shoulders, turning me to face him. His hands were hot, his face too close, his breath on my mouth. "We can't outrun a lock. Not like this."

"So what, we die here?" I grabbed his wrists. My fingers dug in. "You said I wasn't disposable!"

"You're not!" He pulled something from his pack - a spliced cable, raw copper glinting, still sparking. "But that signal in your spine - I can jam it. I can drown it out if I hardwire straight into your link. Right now."

My blood went cold.

"Hardwire? You mean that neural link thing?" I jerked back, but he held on. "You said that could fry me! You said it could kill us both!"

"It could!" he admitted, eyes wild, desperate. "Or it could hide you. It could make them lose the lock for a minute. It's the only chance we have!"

"You want to plug that into my head while drones have us locked?" I stared at the sparking wire, then at him. His face was inches away, rain starting to spit on his skin. "Are you insane?"

"Probably!" he yelled over the rising whine of the drones. They were descending, weapons hot. "But do you trust me or not?"

The targeting tone went solid. Locked on.

He lifted the cable to my temple, his other hand cupping the back of my neck, thumb hot against my pulse. His eyes never left mine.

"This is gonna hurt like hell, so don't you dare let go of me, you hear me? Don't—"