I glance up at the buildings around me, looking for any telltale signs—a glint of light, the flash of a mirror—anything indicating someone lying in wait.

For a while, I don’t see anything.

Then, the slightest movement in one of the windows. Someone’s up there.

I smile a little. Then I edge along the side of the second floor until I reach a balcony. I crouch in the shadows and lift the smoke bomb. Then I fling it as far from the intersection as I can.

It clinks once as it hits the ground. Then it explodes.

Smoke bursts in every direction, filling every crevice and alley in its wake.

I turn to look back at the window where I’d seen movement. Sure enough, there’s another flicker—and an instant later, shadows shudder through the darkness on the street below me. Hann’s minions, off to check what’s happened.

I push my mask higher. When the coast seems clear, I drop back down to the first floor without a sound and dart toward the last building, where the location marker had been.

The space looks like a factory sitting on the edge of the city. It’s enormous. Its exterior is almost completely solid, except for a row of glass windows wrapping around the very top of the building, reflecting the lights of the city.

Behind me, the guards’ shouts are already starting to echo in my direction. They’re heading back. I rush to the building and scan it for any easy entryways. Everything looks locked down, though. My eyes turn skyward to the glass windows again. Then I step onto the hinges of a metal gutter and start pulling myself up the wall.

I’m making my way to the third floor by the time two of the guards return to their stations. They’re clearly agitated, their voices sharp and harsh. No doubt someone has already alerted Hann about the smoke bomb. But there’s no time to dwell on what they might do next. If Eden’s not contacting us, he’s already in trouble.

I freeze on the fourth floor, right below the glass windows, as one of the guards shines a flashlight in my general direction. The sweeping light barely misses me. Sweat drips down my brow. If I can just leap up to grab the window ledge, I can pull myself up out of his angle. As he steps closer below, I edge around the side of the wall until I’ve turned the corner. Then I jump and stretch out my arm, seeking the ledge.

I catch it. With all my strength, I pull myself up and shove the window slightly. It slides open by a sliver.

Inside the building, dim light filters through the glass to illuminate a seemingly endless maze of computers. Their blue sensors blink in unison.

This is the construction site that I’d glimpsed when I was first captured.

An instant later, I notice a circular platform in the center of it all. The disc of metal on the floor glows with a faint light, and virtual holograms—a web of white nodes—hover over it.

I take one last look over my shoulder, toward the guards approaching the outside of the building below. Then I swing inside the building, pull the window shut behind me, and lower myself carefully into the shadows that slant against the wall. There I cling, barely gripping the hand- and footholds I can find.

A noise from the center of the space makes me turn in its direction. Three figures silhouetted by the light have stepped onto the circular platform. When I recognize them, my chest tightens into a knot.

It’s Eden and Pressa, their bodies turned to face a man who is unmistakably Hann. Guards are already approaching them from the shadows of the halls.

They’ve been caught.

EDEN

 

Pressa jerks back with a gasp of shock. Blood sprays the floor as the bullet hits her hard in her left shoulder. She falls to her knees.

I’m stepping in front of her before I realize what I’m doing. “You know I was the one behind all this,” I snap at Hann. The iron smell of blood penetrates the air. Behind me, Pressa bites back a choked cry.

Hann doesn’t look moved at all. Instead, he aims his gun toward Pressa’s leg. “You can keep talking while I work,” he says. “I’ll let you know when it’s your turn.”

He readies to fire again. I lunge between them. “Wait!” I shout out, holding my hands up. “Please! Wait a second. I—”

But he’s no longer interested in talking. He shifts his gun slightly, aiming instead at her left arm.

My mind spins frantically. “Let her go, and I’ll do whatever you want. Use me as ransom, kill me, anything.”

He gives me a cool look. “I already plan on ransoming you out,” he replies with a shrug.

“And what would your son think of all this?” I demand.

“He would think you’re stalling me for time,” Hann says. There’s no sympathy in his eyes now, nothing but a low-burning fire at the audacity I have for bringing up his family. He points his gun at Pressa’s head this time. I stand in front of her, but it’s a helpless gesture.

“Is this what you imagined for yourself, if your son and your wife were alive?” I finally snap. “You think you’re the only one who’s ever suffered? You think this is the solution to everything that’s gone wrong for you?”

This time, a flash of anger darts across his features. He shifts his gun so that it’s now pointing at me instead. “I wouldn’t know, would I? Because they’re gone. And that’s the last time you will mention my family to me again.”

A surge of adrenaline floods my veins. He’s going to shoot me. I think of my own family—of my brother, all I have left, waiting alone for my signal. There’s no way I’m going to let this man kill me here. I’m walking out alive, one way or another.

As if something in the universe has aligned at my thought, I’m compelled to look behind Hann, toward the glass windows lining the top of the building. There, silhouetted against the shadows, is the shape of a young man crouched on top of one of the towering computer shelves.

Daniel is here.

It’s all I need to see.

I suddenly lunge toward Hann.

He doesn’t expect me to do this—all he’s known of me is the awkward brother, the shy one, the one who still has to wear glasses in the dark. I duck low as I reach him. Before he can fire at me, I barrel into his legs and throw him off balance. Remember what Daniel taught you. The words flow through me like a current of electricity. In one move, I seize the gun from his hand and hold it up to his temple.

His guards all still at the sight.

“Back away from her!” I shout at them as I nod toward Pressa’s kneeling figure. “Drop your weapons!”

In my grasp, Hann laughs. Only now can I tell that he’s noticeably weaker than I remember him from the last time I saw him. Either he didn’t avoid Pressa’s serum as well as he claimed, or his illness has worsened significantly. Perhaps it’s both.

“Well,” he says. “Thank goodness you’ve got some surprises left in you.”

A sharp elbow strikes me hard in the chin. Stars burst in my vision—I’m forced to release him. He still moves faster than I can. He whirls around, seizes my arm, and locks it into a hold. I barely manage to twist out of his grasp, but he knocks the gun from my hand. It clatters to the floor.

He reaches down for it. In the same moment, I take the chip and swipe all its data onto the platform’s system.

The entire web of nodes flashes in a ripple of scarlet. I allow myself a grim, satisfied smile. Hann’s system shudders, corrupted, then deletes. Almost immediately, I see virtual markers reappear over Pressa’s head, over Dominic Hann himself, over his guards—the city’s original system has reset.