Page 106

Kat’s eyes met Leo’s across the room, unfaltering despite the terror gilding their edges.

“Sixteen minutes to a new age of persuasion and not a drop of blood required.” Korolov’s eyes shone. “Tonight makes believers of them all.” He tilted his head. “Progress isn’t always clean, Bychkov. You, of all people, should know that.”

The distance between him and Korolov was too far. One wrong twitch and Kat died.

“Eldridge?” Leo snapped toward the woman on the bed, but she dropped her gaze toward the tablet.

Coward.Once, she’d fought beside them. Now her silence was treason, dressed as inevitability.

Leo’s throat burned as he turned back to Korolov. “Let Kat go. This is between you and me.”

Korolov laughed, and the sound ricocheted off the room. “Wrong.” He yanked Kat’s head back. She made no sound, but her jaw locked, a muscle fluttering beneath her skin. “No isolated players on this board. Only pieces correctly positioned or not.”

“This isn’t a game. You’re playing with people’s lives.”

Korolov gave a low whistle, the furrow between his eyes deepening. “Zugzwang.” With his free hand, he nosed his gun in a line down Kat’s cheek. “Do you play chess, Bychkov? It’s theposition where every move makes your situation worse. Where defeat becomes inevitable.” His smile grew vicious. “But I’m a generous opponent. I’ll offer you a choice.”

Leo dug his nails into his palms, his blood molten in his veins.

He couldn’t win this without losing.

Korolov’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Stop the broadcast—she dies. Let it run—she lives. Sacrifice your pawns to save your queen, Bychkov. Isn’t that how the game’s played?”

“Don’t,” Kat whispered, the single word carrying the weight of everything that had grown between them. “Not for me.”

Leo ran the math. Every branch ended with Kat’s blood pooling and Nightshade going live. Millions of minds laid open.

The whine from deep in the complex deepened into an almost sub-audible roar. Above his head, the fluorescent light wavered. Kat shifted her weight—a whisper of motion, just enough to nudge the muzzle off-center.

A plan ignited in the silent current between them.

With the change in her posture, Korolov’s gun barrel drifted less than a quarter of an inch.

Leo’s heart beat once and he launched.

His shoulder rammed into Korolov’s ribs hard enough to crack bone before the Russian could realign.

The gun barked, scorching the air where Kat’s cheek had been a heartbeat earlier as she flung herself clear.

Leo and Korolov crashed past Eldridge into the bed. Her wheelchair tipped with a hollow clang, and she hit the floor shrieking. The tablet, still spinning toward zero, launched from her knees, and skidded beneath the nearest server rack.

“Kat, the tablet!” Leo gasped.

Korolov’s face contorted. His knee drove upward and pain flashed white through Leo’s gut.Bastard.Leo answered with a hook that crunched Korolov’s jaw sideways.

Three feet to the right, a medical cart waited.

Grabbing Korolov by the shoulders, he shoved him into the cart. It tipped, pulling him under. Monitors, coiled cables, and glass vials burst into glittering spray across the tile.

On the other side of him, Kat crawled, elbows skidding through shards toward the tablet.

Blood slicked Leo’s knuckles as he drove one, two piston blows into Korolov’s jaw, adrenaline scalding like acid in his bloodstream.

Korolov fought back like a cornered animal. His thumbs dug for Leo’s throat, his fingers clawing forhis eyes. Leo ripped his hands away, and Korolov regrouped.

A targeted punch drilled into Leo’s kidney. White-hot shock stole his breath and an iron-metal taste flooded his mouth.

“You think you can save her?” Korolov’s laugh was wet with dark blood. “You couldn’t even save those children.”