The conviction in her voice almost broke me. My throat tightened.
“I’m not walking into a trap,” I said, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. “And I’m not going alone.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we go. You and me. Not to negotiate. Not to beg for treatment.” I leaned forward, ignoring the pain that shot through my spine. “We take the fight to Kovacs. We force her to give us the protocols. And if we die trying, at least we die fighting instead of waiting.”
Kate stared at me for a long moment. “That’s a terrible plan.”
“You got a better one?”
She didn’t answer right away. I watched the thoughts play across her face.
“No,” she admitted finally. “But I don’t like it.”
“Noted.”
Alistair made a small noise of protest. “This is insane. Even if you found the research, even if you got it back here, the chances of it containing anything useful are minimal.”
“Minimal isn’t zero,” Kate replied, still holding my gaze.
“And the chances of you getting caught or killed are significant,” Alistair countered. “Then what happens to the team? To the operation we’ve been building?”
He was right. The logical part of my brain knew he was right. Risking Kate and potentially compromising this new version of Edge Ops for a slim chance at prolonging my life by a few months was tactically unsound.
But logic was getting harder to hold onto these days.
“Ninety-six hours,” Kate said quietly, her eyes never leaving mine.
“If I last that long.”
“You’ll last.”
I didn’t argue. What was the point? If I crashed before we reached Romania, the whole plan was shot anyway.
Alistair looked between us, conflict clear on his face. Finally, he sighed. “I can’t support this officially. But...” He paused. “I’ll make sure you have what you need. Medical supplies. Anything that might help.”
“Thank you,” I said.
He gathered the lab results into a folder. “Don’t make me regret this.”
After he left, Kate climbed onto the hospital bed beside me, careful not to disturb any of the monitors or IV lines. Her headsettled against my shoulder, her arm draping across my chest where the gold patterns glowed faintly through my T-shirt.
It felt good.
Better than I deserved.
We lay there in silence, not speaking, just being present. We both knew what was coming. We both knew the odds. But sitting here waiting for death wasn’t an option anymore.
“You know she’ll never just hand over the protocols,” Kate said softly against my neck.
“I know.”
“And you know the facility will be heavily guarded.”
“I know that too.”
She sighed, her breath warm on my skin. “We’re probably going to die.”
I smiled in the darkness, my hand finding hers where it rested over my heart. “Probably.”
“As long as we’re clear on that.”
I had four to six weeks to live, maybe eight with treatment. But for the first time since the biohacking had started failing, I felt something other than resignation. Something that burned hotter than the pain in my veins.
If I was going down, I was taking Kovacs with me. And maybe, just maybe, we’d both find what we were looking for in those Romanian mountains.
Time to make these last weeks count.
