And yet, here he is, standing in front of my brother, a thoughtful smile on his face. As I look on, Hann says something to Eden that I can’t make out.
The blood in my veins chills to ice.
I force myself to stay calm, blending into the shadows, while the audience below gapes at the exchange. Before him, Eden stays frozen, unsure what to say in response.
Walk away, I urge him silently.Turn your back. Run.
Except my brother doesn’t. He smiles a little at Hann and then says something to answer him.
I feel like I’m back in the Republic again, looking on helplessly as the soldiers take my family away.
Why is Hann talking to him? What does he want with him?
But even as the questions flood my mind, I know the answer byinstinct. It’s because Eden made the best drone here. His nimble hands have built a machine so remarkable that it caught Hann’s interest. That it beat out all the experienced racers. That itwon.
I’ve never doubted Eden’s talents, but have I still been underestimating him?
Everyone makes room for Dominic Hann as he steers Eden back toward the center of the clearing. Hostile looks linger on my brother. If it weren’t for Hann’s presence beside him right now, he might already have a knife in his back.
A surge of panic hits me. I have to do something.
My hand lingers by the gun at my belt. I’m not as good a shot as June, but I’ve gotten pretty good over the years with my AIS training. From here, I might be able to take out Hann with a single shot to the head.
But Eden would be the most immediate suspect. The new kid, suddenly here when Hann’s killed? I don’t know how many of the people in this audience are Hann’s spies and bodyguards, but I do note that there are some whose eyes sweep the audience instead of focusing on the racers. If I managed to kill Hann, his men would shoot Eden dead before the body even hit the floor. And there’s no guarantee I’d hit Hann. What if I missed?
I grit my teeth and force myself not to draw my gun. Instead, my gaze goes up to the red bulbs dangling over the space. I follow the trails of lights until they end next to the walls, the sides of which are supported by a lattice of thick, steel beams. An enormous circuit breaker sits against the wall that would have led back into that small bar.
I straighten a little from my perch on the back wall. In theshadows, I know I look like little more than a moving silhouette, and no one seems to notice me as I swing to the crisscrossing steel supporting one of the side buildings and pull myself soundlessly up onto the lowest horizontal beam, then the next one.
I keep climbing until I reach the circuit breaker. The wires connecting all the ceiling’s bulbs bunch together here in the upper corners. Aside from those bulbs, this clearing is lit only by the weak light coming from the surrounding buildings’ apartments.
I pull a knife out from my boot. Down below in the clearing, Hann pats my brother on his shoulder.
The sight’s enough to send a shudder deep through my bones. I slash once through the red bulbs’ wires.
The entire space plunges into darkness.
No time to waste. I turn on my system’s grids. In the chaos, a series of thin, neon-blue virtual lines light up over my view, showing me where to go and where people are. I swing down from the beams one at a time, as fast as I can. My feet hit the ground in seconds. Then I’m bolting into the crowd, shoving past people as I seek out my brother.
I reach him. In my grids, he looks like a sickly green animation.
He lets out a startled shout before I clap a hand over his mouth. Then, without a word, I pull him with me and run. To my overwhelming relief, he doesn’t resist. He just follows me.
We dart through the crowds to one of the narrow alleys that other people are running toward, one that dead-ends at a nondescript shop, then leads out into a main street. Everyone around us jostles past, panicked that the clearing is being raided.
Somewhere behind us are Dominic Hann and his men. But I don’t dare look back.
“You followed me down here,” Eden snaps at me as we go. In the darkness, his eyes glitter once, livid. He doesn’t have a clue how close he came to death.
“You don’t understand,” I say. “That man was Dominic Hann.”
At that, Eden blinks at me. “So?” he asks.
“So,” I answer grimly, “you have no idea what you’ve just gotten yourself into.”
EDEN
Dominic Hann.
