“Something big.”
“Good big or bad big?”
I glance at her.
“It might save your life,” I say.
She nods.
“Or doom us both.”
She closes her eyes. “I’m good with either. Long as I’m with you.”
Damn it. I’m already gone.
CHAPTER 15
SABLE
The chip burns a hole in our lives. Not literally, but damn near close.
We’re in the apartment, lights low, Lazarus on the screen like some ghostly oracle. Voltar's crouched beside me, muscles tense beneath that ridiculous too-tight suit he hasn’t peeled off yet. There’s this weight in the air—thick, like the moment before a thunderstorm.
I hold the chip like it might bite me.
“You sure this thing’s safe?” I ask.
Voltar grunts. “Safe enough. Plug it.”
I slot it into the compad. The screen flickers, static stuttering before clearing into something clean, sharp—an audio file, voice-locked and encrypted.
Lazarus hums. “Let’s crack this sucker open.”
I don’t breathe. I don’t blink.
Then—voice.
Low. Gravely. Expensive.
“Big Otto,” I whisper.
He’s talking to someone I can’t see. Calm, controlled.
“I want the girl gone,” he says. “Not just out of the picture. Gone. Ashes. Ghosted.”
My stomach flips.
“Consider it done,” the other voice says. Distorted. Artificial.
Then Otto: “A billion credits. Transferred on confirmation. No loose ends.”
And the file ends.
Silence.
A billion. For me.
I laugh, sharp and too loud.
