“Save your breath,” I cut in. “You’re alive because you’re useful.”
His smile is brittle. “To you.”
“To the truth,” I correct.
Morazin’s eyes flick over my face, calculating. “They’ll kill you before they let you parade me in a hearing.”
“They’re going to try,” I say.
He laughs softly. “Good luck.”
I lean in close enough that he can smell me—smoke, steel, and the faint metallic edge of restraint.
“You’re going to tell them everything,” I say quietly. “And if you don’t, I’ll make sure you live long enough to regret it.”
Morazin swallows. His throat bobs like a trapped animal’s.
Outside, the convoy rolls.
Jordan’s voice comes through the secure comm, low and focused. “Cameras on Route One looped. Traffic locks delayed by forty-five seconds. You’re green.”
Her competence is a physical thing in my chest—a steadying weight.
“Copy,” I say.
We move through Gur’s industrial veins—past stacks of shipping containers, under skeletal bridges, through corridors lined with pipes that hiss steam into the cold air. The city smells like hot oil and ozone, like rust and damp concrete. It’s uglier than the casino, but it’s honest about it.
The decoy vehicle runs ahead. The buffer behind. We keep space between us like breathing room.
Jordan’s voice again: “You’ve got a tail.”
Rook, in the front seat, murmurs, “Where?”
“Drone,” Jordan says. “High. Small. It’s trying to match speed.”
I glance up through the narrow window. I can’t see it, but I believe her.
“Can you blind it?” I ask.
“Working,” she says. “But if it’s Nine-grade, it’ll have redundant optics.”
A hiss of static crackles in the comm—an attempt to jam.
Jordan’s voice cuts through anyway, sharp. “They’re pushing distortion into the local grid. Someone’s trying to lock the traffic gates ahead.”
Morazin laughs under his breath. “Told you.”
I ignore him.
“Jordan,” I say, “do what you do.”
“Already doing it,” she snaps.
The convoy hits a junction—and the traffic gate ahead begins to slide down, slow and heavy, like a guillotine dropping in syrup.
Rook curses. “Gate’s closing!”
Jordan’s voice is tight. “Give me ten seconds.”
