Chapter 32 · Voidbound - Chapter 32: Broadcast the Truth

"You plug that jack in and you're dead in thirty seconds." Garrick's hand closed around my wrist, hard enough to bruise. "Core feedback will fry your brain stem before the first image goes live."

I didn't pull away. Couldn't. The broadcast tower rose behind him, all steel and humming conduit, Guild relays pulsing along its spine like a nervous system. Mira stood three feet to my left, gun holstered but her fingers twitching near the grip. Between us, the purge drive sat in my other hand, its casing warm from the Voidling's last surge.

"Then we don't broadcast," Mira said. Her voice came out flat. Dead. "We take the pardon. Walk out. Let someone else—"

"There is no one else." I met her eyes. "You know that."

She flinched.

Garrick's grip tightened. "Kid, listen to me. The Spire's core isn't a server. It's a living relay. You jack a raw signal into that thing, it'll read you as a virus and burn you out from the inside. I've seen it happen. Twice. Both times the techs lasted maybe twenty seconds before they started seizing."

"How long does it take to transmit?" I asked.

"Fifteen seconds if the file's compressed.