“I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!” The stranger stumbles into the holotable. “I should’ve told you earlier. This is all a big misunderstanding.”
His jaw tightens. Nothing is adding up here. The hesitancy, the fear. Either this man’s the best liar Kane’s ever met or—
He studies the stranger again. The terror in his expression from before, constant apologies instead of making demands. That isn’t the fear of someone caught in a lie. It’s pure, raw panic.
This man’s completely innocent.
And Kane just threatened to kill him. He exhales and lowers his gun.
Viper doesn’t. His grip hovers over the trigger, ready to execute a civilian from Midtown.
Not on Kane’s watch. He moves between them, shouldercutting into Viper’s line of fire. “Stand down. He’s not a threat,” Kane orders.
There’s a long pause before Viper eventually reholsters the weapon. “Fine,” he mutters.
Kane doesn’t let the stare-down linger. “We’ll deal with this later. Right now, Echo’s dying.” Turning back to the stranger, he yanks off the ID chip clipped to his scrubs. The stranger flinches but doesn’t resist, letting Kane scan the chip with his wristlink.
A hologram of data flickers to life: Rafael Gutierrez, twenty-seven, male, resident nurse in cybernetics.
“You’re anurse,” Kane hisses, holding out the chip. He’s not even adoctor.
The stranger—Rafael nods and receives his ID, visibly shaking.
“I didn’t know, Baron!” Wren blurts. “He fit the description!”
“Enough!” The command silences the room. After a glance at Echo’s vitals, Kane turns to her. “I don’t want to hear it, Wren. Echo might die because of your mistake.”
Rafael takes a hesitant step forward. “She didn’t know.” His throat bobs as he swallows. “I should’ve spoken up when she grabbed me, but I was too scared to correct her. Please…don’t blame her.”
Kane’s brow lifts. Why is this nurse defending Wren? If anything, the mistake is hers. He scans the man’s spiking vitals again. Could they be colluding?
No. Wren’s loyalty has never wavered, not since he and Echo pulled her from the streets when she had nowhere else to turn after being blacklisted by Factura.
As for Rafael, he’s either dangerously naive or has a strongermoral compass than most of Kane’s crew.
Neither changes the situation.
“Fault or not, you’re all we’ve got.” Kane jerks his chin toward Echo. “You’re going to try to save her. Understood?”
The nurse’s eyes dart to Echo’s still form. A shaky breath leaves him before he forces out, “I’ll…I’ll do my best.” Moving faster than expected, Rafael spins around to Echo and snatches up the medkit. He pulls on gloves, then reaches for a diagnostic tool, one Kane doesn’t recognize.
Panic shoots through Kane as he darts to his side. His fingers clamp around the nurse’s latex-covered wrist. Rafael’s breath catches.
“I want to know every move, every risk. Tell me everything.”
For a beat, neither of them moves. Kane expects him to pull away and argue. Only Rafael steadies his voice and says, “I will.”
Kane releases him but doesn’t step back, still scanning the room. Viper’s stare finds him while the others remain focused on Echo.
“I need to run a diagnostic on her neural lace,” Rafael whispers, drawing Kane’s attention to where he adjusts the tool. “It’ll help me assess the damage.”
A sharp beep echoes through the room as the device powers up, charts and graphs lighting up the display. He hovers the end over the exposed lace at Echo’s head, and the readings pulse red.
“What does it say?” Kane barks. The sooner he knows, the better.
Rafael sucks in a breath. “I—” His voice is shaky. “We don’t have much time.”
Kane’s shoulders tense as memories of Echo threaten to surface, of her sharp laugh during a gladiator match, that cocky smile after intel came through. He forces them down. “Get to work.”