The smoke and fire above felt like a lifetime away as I stumbled forward, my only hand clutching the flashkey so tight my knuckles ached.
The screams were still there.
Gunfire. Explosions. The war that wasn't mine but had somehow become my goddamn reality.
One of Chen's men—a bleeding, panting fighter with a torn jacket and eyes that had already seen too much—had yanked me toward the hidden escape hatch in the floor, wrenched it open, and shoved me inside.
"Run."
And then he was gone.
Rushing back into hell.
I barely had time to catch my breath before it happened—
A shriek of static in my skull.
Raw. Electric. Like a thousand tiny knives stabbing straight into my brainstem.
My comlink flared to life against my will, my vision bursting into glitching red code, my body seizing like I'd been hit with a stun baton.
Something was trying to get in.
Something was hacking me.
