“How long has your family lived in the Undercity?” Dominic Hann asks her as she pours the contents of the vial into a cup and mixes it with hot water.
Pressa doesn’t say anything for a second. Her concentration stays on the mixture she’s preparing. “As long as I can remember,” she replies. “My grandparents came to Ross City when they were fleeing chaos in their own country. They ended up in the Undercity. My dad says the apothecary first belonged to them.”
“I see,” he says.
He’s testing her, I realize, with the way he watches her as she stirs the concoction. He’s looking for something unusual in her gaze, the secret of why we must really be here.
But he doesn’t stop her as she works. I realize that, maybe, he’s genuinely hopeful this will work.
As she works, I speak up. I clear my throat and lean forward from the desk I’m seated on. “Like you said,” I tell Hann, “the military’s not going to stay back forever. We don’t have much time. What do you need done on your system?”
Hann tilts his chin at me. “You’ll be in charge of installing a hack on the system that redirects all Leveling to be under my control,” he replies.
A chill courses through my veins, as cold as winter wind outside. Our assumptions had been right, after all. He’s going to make himself the sole dictator of what’s legal and illegal. I blink, feigning shock instead at the scope of the hack. “A program that can do that?” I ask. “It’ll take far too long.”
Hann observes me with his penetrating stare. “Not if you’re working on it,” he replies. “I’m told it’s a simple matter of installing a new chip on the system. You’ll take a look at it tomorrow night.”
Tomorrow night. It’s too late. If I’m going to keep with our plan, I need to dismantle things and install our own chip sooner than that. I frown at Hann. “Show me the system tonight. If it needs to be done manually, I’m going to need all the time I can get.”
Hann studies the liquid in his mug. Nearby, Pressa holds her breath. “You’re going to do it when I tell you,” he replies. The command in his voice is cool and detached, so used to being obeyed that he doesn’t even bother questioning whether or not I will.
“But—” I start to protest again.
In the blink of an eye, he whips a hand out at Pressa and seizes her wrist right as she starts to pull away.
She gasps. I freeze.
Hann looks at her with an unblinking gaze—and then finally releases her. There’s an unspoken threat in his words as he turns his eyes back to me. He’s suspicious of why I want access so soon to his system, why I’m not questioning his ambition. He’s telling me that he could easily snap Pressa’s wrists, that he could slit my throat and leave our bodies in the streets like he’s done with so many others.
It’s easy to forget that Hann is known for being a cold-blooded killer. The sudden flip between this and his vulnerable, exhausted self leaves me reeling.
“After you,” he says to her, as he holds out the mug that she’s handed him.
To my amazement, Pressa doesn’t falter. Instead, she nods and holds the mug up. She takes a long sip. I have to stop myself fromreacting as she does and giving us all away, but my muscles feel weak with tension at her move. Does this mean the effects will hit her too? Did she guess this might happen?
“You might feel a little weak tonight,” she says to Hann when she’s swallowed some of the drink. Her voice has a slight tremor in it, but she manages to keep her words slow and measured. “Some clear liquid may come up in your coughs, but it’s a good sign that the medication is working. If the liquid looks dark, we’ll need to give you some antibiotics.”
Hann waits, watching her. But she just meets his gaze with her own calm one, and if I didn’t know what we were doing, I’d think she was genuine, nothing more than someone following through with what she’s promised him.
For a moment, I don’t think we’ll get away with it.
Then his cold gaze disappears. He leans back, looking more satisfied now that Pressa has drunk enough of the serum herself.
“I’ll show you the system tonight,” he says to me. “Tomorrow morning, I expect you to have an efficient solution for implementing what I want. I should be able to tell that you’re the top student in all of Ross City.” He gives me a brief smile at that.
I nod back and let out a slow breath as Hann rises to his feet. He straightens his jacket, looks once at Pressa, and gives her a terse nod. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk again. I appreciate your help.”
It’s not spoken with gratitude. There’s a promise in there, a confirmation that tomorrow we’re going to have to face him again. I just follow Pressa and murmur in agreement, then head out of the room behind him. My eyes stay lowered, but I keep my attention on Pressa beside me.
If we can survive the night, we just might make it out of here. But if things go wrong, I may just have overreached for the last time.
***
Pressa and I are allowed to stay in the same room, with a set of twin bunks stacked on top of each other. Guards are stationed right outside the entrance. We’re to take our dinner in here, and I’m going to be shown where the system is kept.
The instant we close the door, Pressa reaches into her pocket and puts a pill in her mouth.
“What’s that?” I ask her.
