Page 44

Kat stumbled to a halt in the doorway with her Glock raised, cold blooming in her chest.

Victoria Eldridge was almost unrecognizable in a wheelchair, propped against white pillows, an IV-line snaking from her bandaged hand to a slow-dripping bag.

A gray blanket covered her legs, matching the waxy pallor of her skin.

One side of her head was shaved clean, revealing an angry scar that curved from temple to ear like a question mark carved in flesh.

Kat swept behind the door, Leo covering her. Antiseptic bit the air.

“Eldridge.” Her throat constricted around the name.

“Landon.” Eldridge’s voice carried across the sterile space. “You can lower your weapon.” Her head tilted to one side. “I’m not armed.”

Kat’s earpiece buzzed.

Griff’s voice, tight and breathless. “Leo, we’re taking heavy fire at the tower base. Eli’s working on the primary array but—” The transmission cut to white noise.

A tannoy blared above her head. “Twenty-three minutes to live broadcast.”

Leo’s exhale was sharp, almost a hiss as he stormed across to a bank of computers that covered one side of the room. He shouldered his weapon, shot Eldridge a glance. “How do we shut it down?”

If they didn’t, the broadcast would slip under every firewall, every sensor net. Nightshade would rewrite the illusion of free will, weaponized on a global scale.

Eldridge’s eyes skittered over him but settled on Kat.

“You’re one of the best agents I’ve ever worked with.

I wondered if you’d track me down.” Her shoulders lifted in a fractional shrug.

“You stopped London, I’ll give you that.

But El Nido? You’re too late. The tower goes live in—what, just over twenty minutes? ”

Arrogant to the last. “You need to kill it.” Kat moved forward, gun still raised.

Eldridge shook her head, the motion careful. “It’s not that simple. It’s not black and white like you think.”

Another burst of static. “…under fire from three positions. Need immediate—” Fox’s voice dissolved into gunshots and shouting.

Kat paced closer. Bruises marbled the crook of Eldridge’s arm. “Victoria.” First names wouldn’t make a difference. But hell, it was worth a try. “You don’t need to do this?—”

“Don’t I? Let me paint you a picture, Agent Landon.” Eldridge’s voice thinned. “Glioblastoma. Grade four. Inoperable.”

Kat’s palm was sticky against the Glock. It’s sweat, not fear. The next-gen iteration of Raptor—no implants. Just mind-fucking on a global scale.

“Six months, maybe eight.” Eldridge’s voice went brittle. “MI6 doesn’t like agents who are sick. You know what happens? We disappear. Passed over. Tossed aside while the machine grinds on.” She shifted against her pillows, wincing as the movement pulled at her IV.

The monitor behind her chirped once and a line on the screen fluttered like a dying breath.

Eldridge inhaled slowly. Her eyes locked on Kat’s. “I wasn’t ready to be erased.”

“Neither was Jane, but you erased her anyway.”

Eldridge pressed her lips together into a dark line. “That was…regrettable.”

Kat’s jaw clenched so hard it sent pain jolting up her temple.

Jane’s name used to mean endless pink post-its, bad coffee, and inside jokes from stakeouts that ran too long. Now it was collateral.

“Fuck, Victoria,” Kat gritted out. “You had her killed. ”

Eldridge’s gaze didn’t waver. “She was loyal—to the wrong side.”

“Jane figured it out, didn’t she? Your medical connection to the project.”

“No matter how much we want it to be, life isn’t simple. As an MI6 officer, you of all people should understand that.”

Somewhere down-corridor, a dampened rumble shuddered through the floor plates—the fight outside edging closer.

Leo slammed a fist on the computer console, making Kat jump. “The kill command, Eldridge. Where the fuck is it?”

She looked straight at him. “I see civilian life hasn’t softened you, Bychkov.” Her attention switched back to Kat as Leo’s eyes narrowed. “Raptor tech can excise a tumor cell by cell—miracles surgeons still call impossible.”

“Stop making excuses.” Kat flexed her damp fingers around her Glock, her stomach rolling queasily. “You ran to Korolov, sold out everyone who ever trusted you.”

“This is a waste of time.” Leo kept his gun trained on Eldridge as he searched the room, tossing books and files to the floor. “They’re trialing this on fucking children, Eldridge.”

Eldridge ignored him. “I was dying, Landon. Twenty-seven years of service, and they cast me aside the moment I became inconvenient.” Her hand shook as she adjusted the blanket across her legs. “Fuck loyalty. I want to live.”

Jane’s body was all Kat could see now—vacant stare, loose hands. Sympathy had been burned out of her long before this room.

“You sold classified information.” The words were ash in Kat’s mouth.

Eldridge didn’t flinch. “I offered Korolov protection. Intel from inside MI6. In return, he found what I needed—labs, scientists, full deniability.” She paused, adjusting the IV as it tugged against her bandage. “They weren’t encumbered by ethics. That was the point.”

Her gaze met Kat’s, unrepentant. “The same technology that gives him his lucrative weapon will give me my life back.”

Leo paused in his search on the far side of the room. “And when Kat stumbled onto your files?”

“My entire survival plan was at risk. Her implication was a necessary convenience and bought me time to complete the treatment protocol.” Eldridge sighed, her mouth a brutal slash. “This could cure the incurable. Brain tumors. Cancer. Lives no surgeon can reach?—”

Leo spun and hammered his palm onto the console, hard enough to rattle every monitor on the bank of screens. “Kill switch, Eldridge. Or do I unplug your miracle one circuit at a time?”

“If it were easy, MI6 would have done it without you.” Eldridge offered him a thin, exhausted smile that bypassed her eyes.

Static burst across Kat’s earpiece.

Griff coughed. “Tower team’s down to one gun. Ten minutes if we’re lucky, Leo—” The line died in a crackle of interference.

Kat caught a glint beneath the rail. “Leo?—”

He lunged, fingers scrabbling beneath the bed. “Got it.” A black tablet surfaced in his grip. Across the glass, the countdown flashed crimson red.

00:17:57

00:17:56

The kill switch.

Kat’s hands ached around her gun. If Nightshade went live, no one would know they’d been rewritten. Not until it was too late.

“You think this is my first war?” Leo shoved the screen at Eldridge, then jammed the SIG’s muzzle against the puckered scar on her temple. “End it.”

Eldridge’s breath was strained. “Can’t.” She raised trembling hands. “Dual-biometric lockout. Mine and Korolov’s.”

Kat’s pulse scattered. Somewhere in this maze, Korolov was breathing the same air.

“Where is he?” Her voice came out even, betraying none of the panic punching at her ribs.

The countdown tracked downward on the locked screen.

We don’t have time for this.

“Tell us where he is, Victoria. You can still make this good.” Hot blood roared in Kat’s ears.

Eldridge turned her head, dragging the barrel across her scar. “I’m already dead. You just haven’t caught up yet.”

Leo thumbed back the hammer of his pistol, the sound far too loud in the room. “Either Korolov comes through that door, or this ends with you. Right now.” His lips twisted as if being close to Eldridge left a foul taste in his mouth.

“All your eggs in one basket, Landon? Never a good idea.” Eldridge’s smile cut thin, revealing something desolate. “He’s already moved to the uplink control. You’ll never reach him before the clock does.”

“ Fuck .” Leo lowered his gun.

Kat did the same, her gaze colliding with Leo’s.

His face was grave. “If we don’t have Korolov, we turn this place into a fucking crater.”

Every choice led to death. Every path forward was stained with blood.

A laugh, brittle as fractured glass, drifted from the doorway behind Kat.

“Looking for me, ptichka?”

Scent tickled her nostrils. Manufactured. Like air-freshener.

Then cold metal pressed against her temple.

She didn’t flinch. Couldn’t afford to.

But her heart lurched as the world snapped tight.