Cole’s eyes lift to the rear-view, his jaw tightening. ‘It’s not us I’m worried about.’
I follow his eyes, gripping the side of the seat to turn round and stare back through the rear windows. Behind Leoben’s jeep, a handful of drones remain hovering above the spot on the road where we just stood. One of their lights flashes red. I can’t see the pulse it sends, but the effect on the triphase is instantaneous.
Sparks of light rise from the ground, forming glittering silver clouds that rise and spread, swallowing the road, coming dangerously close to Leoben’s jeep. The cloud rolls over the grass, consuming everything in its path, leaving only black, charred earth in its wake.
Leoben’s jeep speeds up until it’s almost touching us. I can’t see Leoben or Dax through their windshield, but I’m sure they’re terrified. Novak’s message is clear: the triphase is real, and the Skies aren’t afraid to use it. Not on Cole or me, perhaps.
But they’ll use it on our friends.
I turn back, falling into the seat, my hands bunched into fists. I’m already frightened enough about the decryption, and now I’ll be doing it at gunpoint. The thought makes me want to scream. I’m giving up my life for this. At the very least, I want to die on my own terms.
But maybe I still can.
My eyes slide to the handgun holstered at Cole’s belt. We don’t have much leverage here – not with triphase on our skin and drones above us – but there is one final card I can play. My father’s code made it clear that whoever wants to release the vaccine is going to need me alive. I can’t turn a gun on a hundred drones, or a troop of Cartaxus soldiers, but I can turn one on my own head and hold myself for ransom. I don’t know what I’d ask for, or what good it would do, but it’d give me some semblance of control over the last hours of my life.
‘You should give me a gun,’ I say.
Cole glances over. ‘For what?’
‘To … protect myself. This might turn into a firefight between Cartaxus and the Skies. What if you get hurt again?’
‘Can you shoot?’
‘I got that Lurker in the head in the mines.’
‘At five yards, sure. I’m asking if you could take him down with a non-lethal shot at twenty yards, while it’s raining, and he’s running in zigzags.’
I blow out a frustrated sigh. ‘Of course I couldn’t.’
‘Then a gun isn’t going to help you, but I can give you something better. I just need a few minutes to get it out.’
Lightning crackles in the distance, revealing the silhouette of mountains on the horizon. ‘Sure,’ I say. ‘It’s not like I’m going anywhere.’
Cole checks the rear-view, his eyes glazing over momentarily. The jeep’s headlights glow brighter, and a warning flashes up on the dash, telling me that it’s switching to full autodriver mode. Cole turns and reaches over the seat, dragging his backpack closer, and digs around in a zippered compartment. He pulls out a knife.
I roll my eyes. ‘Are you kidding me? A knife is clearly not better than a gun.’
‘I never said it was. Just give me a minute.’
He tilts his seat back, letting the jeep drive on its own, and pulls the bottom of his shirt up over his chest. The gunshot wound from the mines is now a tiny silver dot on his taut, muscled stomach, beside a trail of black hair that dives down to his belt. Heat prickles on my neck at the sight. I fight it down, forcing my eyes away.
‘What exactly are you doing?’ I ask.
Cole has the knife clutched in one hand and is prodding around his ribs with the other. ‘Looking for something.’
‘For what?’
He spins the knife so the blade juts towards his chest. ‘For this.’ He stabs the blade between his ribs.
I fly back against the window, my heart pounding. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
He twists the blade, wincing. ‘Uh, it’s tight. Haven’t used it in a while.’
‘Used what?’ I throw one hand over my eyes, squinting between my fingers. ‘Oh shit. It’s in your chest, isn’t it?’
He nods, grunting, dragging the blade back out. It scrapes against something inside him, letting out a metallic shriek. The incision is clean and strangely bloodless. He presses his fingers to it, and a swarm of white wires unfurls from his chest, dragging something out with a squelch.
‘Oh hell no.’ I turn to the window, pressing my forehead to the glass. Heat is rushing up my neck again, but this time it’s because I’m going to be sick. ‘You did not just do that.’
‘These wouldn’t be very useful if they were outside my body. The whole point of these vials is that I can’t lose them in an emergency.’
He drags a little black pendant from the incision between his ribs, slick and capsule shaped, like a polished stone. The wires in his chest shrink back inside him, dragging the incision closed as they recede. He digs around in his backpack, pulls out a silver chain, and slips the black pendant on to it, then hands it to me. ‘This is nightstick. Keep it around your neck at all times, and just twist the ends to use it. Since you don’t have a panel yet, it’s probably the best weapon you could have.’
I take the pendant carefully and slide the chain around my neck. It’s warm. Warm from being inside Cole’s chest. The thought should disgust me, but for some reason it doesn’t. ‘What does it do?’
He presses a blue bandage to his ribs and pulls his shirt back down. ‘It knocks people out, probably the same way you knocked me out in the cabin. It’ll work on anyone with a panel in a twenty-foot radius, including the person who sets it off. It’s good for hostage situations, or when you know you have backup coming. It only lasts a few minutes, but that’s plenty of time for you, because you’ll be immune to the effects.’
‘Because I don’t have a panel.’
‘Exactly.’
I nod, impressed. ‘That’s actually brilliant.’
He smiles, raising his seat, taking the steering wheel again. ‘I have my moments.’
I sink back into my seat, my fingers sliding over the black lozenge. It won’t help me hold myself for ransom, but it might end up being more useful than a gun. The spark of an idea is forming in my head – not something I can use to protect myself, though. Something bigger. Something I can’t quite understand. ‘How does this work on every panel? Does it use an EMP?’
‘I don’t know. The code is top secret. Actually …’ Cole’s eyes glaze over briefly. ‘Since you unlocked my panel, we have access now. You can read it for yourself.’