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J acob convulsed and dropped to the floor on his hands and knees, causing me to scream.

“Jacob!” I fell next to him again, not sure what to do to help him.

He convulsed for several agonizing seconds until he finally stopped and just panted while remaining on all fours.

“Jacob?” I whispered. “Are you okay?” He turned to look at me, catching my gaze.

Something was different. Something was wrong. “Jacob?”

I never saw it coming. He moved so quickly, so fast, that I didn’t even get a chance to react.

I fell onto my back, my head hitting the tile floor.

And just as I opened my eyes to move, I felt a hard kick to my ribs, causing me to yelp out in pain.

Then another, and another, causing me to curl up in a ball to protect myself.

I screamed. “Jacob! Stop it!”

“He can’t, my dear girl,” Raúl said calmly as Jacob grabbed the collar of my shirt and vest in one hand and the waistband of my pants in the other, lifted me up, held me high, and then threw me across the room.

SLAM!

My body smacked into a desk, toppling over the top and flipping down onto the floor of the other side.

Oh god…this was not good. I tried to get up, tried to hurry.

But no sooner was I up on my feet, Jacob was there, pulling his fist back and clocking me, sending me spinning back to the ground.

I was seeing stars. I tasted the iron richness of blood over my tongue.

I coughed, watching as red sprinkled the floor.

WHAM!

Jacob’s booted foot hit me right in the temple, causing me to fall over and cry out.

The world was spinning, and I was losing.

I tried to scramble onto my feet, feeling dizzy.

“Jacob, please!” I hardly got the words out when he grabbed me by the back of the head and then slammed my face into a desk.

And I dropped to the floor again, fluid filling my mouth, threatening to drown me.

I rolled over, coughing out a mouthful of thick metallic blood.

BAM!

I screamed out as I took a kick to my gut. My vision blurred, and I could hardly breathe through my nose that had swollen up. Just as my sight cleared, I saw my brother draw his foot back, readying another kick, when he screamed out and stumbled backward.

“Mara!” Jacob said in between screams. “End it!”

Shock and fear rattled through me as I tried to get to my feet, the room spinning as I rose. What was happening? What was going on? Was he—was he resisting the implant?

Suddenly, Jacob’s body convulsed as his hands flew into his hair and he dropped back onto his knees.

“Follow orders!” Raúl yelled. I turned, and noticed he was pushing the blue button again, and then he shifted back to the red button.

Oh shit!

I snapped my attention back to Jacob. He was back on his feet, racing toward me.

Adrenaline and instinct took over. I slipped into my fighting stance and just as he came in close enough, I kicked out, hitting him in the gut and then punched out with my left, causing him to stumble back.

I took the opportunity and rushed toward him, delivering a sidekick straight into his sternum, sending him falling backwards.

Think, Mara, think!

How the hell was I going to get myself out of this mess?

“Mara!” Jacob screamed out, drawing my attention to him. “Finish it!” And suddenly he was convulsing again on the ground.

Finish it? Finish what?

I glanced back at Raúl, and sure enough, he was pushing the stupid blue button again.

“You asshole!” I charged him. I needed to get my hands on that remote.

No remote, no mind control. Raúl quickly pressed the red button, and suddenly I was being body slammed onto my left side, Jacob on top of me, straddling me.

“Sieze her!” Raúl ordered.

He flipped me onto my back, and then his hands were around my neck, squeezing hard.

My hands flew to his wrists, scratching at his skin, pulling on his arms. But I couldn’t muster a single word.

I just felt the pressure build and build in my brain, making me feel as though I was about to explode.

And suddenly, Jacob threw himself off me, screaming as he scrambled away as fast as he could.

“The remote, Mara! The remote!” And then he was convulsing again, screaming as he tore at his scalp.

I coughed, breathing in ragged breaths as I tried to get on my feet.

I looked back at Raúl. Stumbling, I started to charge him when something hit me from behind.

I went flying forward onto my face, hitting my nose that I was sure was broken.

Tears flooded my vision from the sting as something grabbed me, lifted me off the floor, and then sent me hurtling across the lab, into a glass cabinet that shattered into a million shards all over me.

“It’s no use, Mara,” Raúl gloated. “Even if you manage to get this remote, nothing will change. I have dozens more, and with Sally’s handiwork, we would just simply deactivate this remote and activate a different one.”

I moved, wincing as every shift dug glass into my skin, drawing blood.

“Even if you escaped with him now, he would never escape my control.”

I slowly got to my feet, coughing up more blood.

“Jacob will always be a civil servant of his country,” Raúl stated proudly. “There’s no undoing it.”

I stumbled, panting ragged breaths. “We’ll save him… I’ll save him,” I said weakly.

Raúl smiled, looking at me like I was a little girl playing with dolls. “My dear Mara, he’s mine. The implant is permanent. Try to remove it, and you’ll kill him.”

My eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

This time, his smile was devious, sinister.

“It’s quite brilliant, actually. Think of it as an anti-theft device.

Any tampering with the nanochip causes it to send out one last electrical charge, too powerful for the brainstem to handle.

” He snapped his fingers. “Dead. Just like that. You see, the only way your brother lives is if he stays with me.”

Oh my god… I shifted my eyes to Jacob and watched as he grimaced, tipping his chin downward, defeated. With a heavy breath, he lifted his head again, tears glistening in his eyes.

“You see, Mara, I will always win. In fact, I already have.” Raúl sighed, pulling back on his sleeve, and looking at his tab.

“Well, it seems like we’re out of time. Your pathetic rebellion should be all but destroyed out there, and I’m sure your mother will want us home for dinner.

So, it seems like it would be best to finish this part and get on with it.

” Raúl walked to Jacob and patted him on the back.

“Come now, son. Let’s get this part over with.

” Raúl pushed the red button. Jacob shuddered for a moment, set his gaze on me, and charged.

This was it. There was nothing left to do. Nowhere left to run. My stunner was gone and there was no way I was going to shoot my brother. I was out of options, except … I glanced around and saw Jacob’s backpack on the floor several yards from me.

The bomb.

I made a beeline for it, knocking over chairs as I went, throwing any obstacle I could in Jacob’s path.

I leaped, sliding across the ground, snagging the satchel, and then whipped up onto my knees.

Tearing open the bag, I snatched the detonator and held it up high as I flipped open the protective casing and pushed the red button.

“Call him off or we all die!” I screamed.

“Stop!” Raúl yelled, and Jacob came to a screeching halt only three yards away from me. We were poised like a triangle, with me now between the two of them.

“I have enough explosives in this bag to destroy this entire floor, and I’ve already pushed the button. We’ve got exactly ten minutes to get out of here or we’re all going to die,” I explained through ragged breaths.

“I don’t believe you,” Raúl sneered.

I stuck a hand into the bag and pulled out a digital clock connected to wires and several packs of TNT. And with each passing second, the red numbers counted down. “Believe me now?”

Raúl glared at me. “Stupid girl. Disarm it or I’ll have him kill you.”

“You’ll have him kill me either way. Give me the fucking remote, or I’m going to let this thing count down and smile when it gets to zero!

” I was out of options, and this one was one hell of a Hail Mary.

I didn’t know how to deactivate a bomb, but Raúl didn’t know that.

And if Raúl gave me the remote, maybe Jacob knew how to deactivate the bomb?

That, or we were going to have to run like hell to get out of this place before it exploded.

Raúl looked from me, then to Jacob, and back to me. “I never thought you had it in you.”

“I guess you were wrong.”

“You’ll never free him, you understand?”

I swallowed, the sting of his words needling me. “I’m a very determined person.”

Raúl narrowed his eyes at me. One second ticked—two, three—and then, with a sigh, Raúl looked at Jacob.

“It really is such a pity.” He blinked, his eyes flickering, as he set his gaze back on me.

“Have it your way then,” he said. Unceremoniously, he pushed the green button and tossed the remote at me just as Jacob collapsed to the ground.

“Jacob!” I screamed. I scrambled across the ground as he convulsed, eyes closed and body thrashing like a rag doll, until he finally stopped. Blood began to drip from his ears. I whirled on Raúl. “What did you do to him?”

Raúl shook his head in that condescending way. “Not what I did to him, Mara. But what you did to him.”

“What?”

“I told you the only way he would live would be with me. But you left me no choice. So now he’ll die. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

My jaw dropped. “You killed him?”

“No, Mara. You did.” And without so much as a glance at Jacob, Raúl turned away from me and walked out of the room.