Page 62 of Rupture

“I know she is,” Finn said softly. “That’s what scares me.”

“Good,” Liev wagged a finger at him, his teeth white against an oily smear on his jaw. “Means you’re ready to care about losing something again.”

They worked in silence for a moment, the only sound the clicking of tools against metal.

“Tell her,” Liev said finally. “Not because you have to, but because she deserves the choice. And so do you.”

Finn sighed, wiping grease from his hands as he stood back to survey his work. “Maybe you’re right?—”

An alarm shrieked to life, its piercing wail drowning out his words.

What now?

Finn dropped his tools and seized his pulse rifle.

He sprinted with Liev back out into the corridor where emergency lights pulsed an angry red, turning the metallic walls to blood. They raced around the curve, stumbling to an almost instant halt.

Rose and Luca were at the far end of the corridor backing away slowly. Between them, massing in the corridor, a silvery cloud writhed and twisted, catching the strobing light like mercury.

“Rose!”

Her eyes locked with his across the distance. In that moment, all his fears about telling her the truth seemed absurd compared to the terror of losing her.

The swarm surged.

35

Rose’s heartraced but it was a fight to breathe, her ribs creaking with the effort.

The swarm descended from the ceiling, settling at eye level.

Luca pulled her close, notching her against his side. She didn’t resist, drawing comfort from his solid form. At the far end of the corridor Finn was with Liev, his face barely visible through the writhing mass. He might as well have been on the other side of the world. She swallowed against the congestion in her throat.

“Any ideas, Doc?” Luca squinted at the swarm as it coagulated and darkened.

Her skin buzzed from the proximity. Images flashed through her mind of them swathing her, forcing their way into her nose and mouth, suffocating her before invading her bloodstream?—

Stop it.

“Okay, I’m no scientist, but this is not fucking good—” Luca aimed his weapon, moving his body as a barrier between her and the swarm.

The swarm swept upward, hitting the ceiling several feet away, a boiling, seething mass.

“Luca, lower your weapon. Don’t threaten them.”

Something shifted subtly in the air as the swarm solidified, an unquantifiable number of molecular bots working as one.

No—

A dark lance formed, fired forward, hitting Luca square in the chest, and knocking him off his feet.

“Agh—” Luca slammed into the floor, his pulse rifle blasting a hole in the ceiling. The smoky-black lance flattened, spreading like hot oil across his chest, his stomach, his legs.

“Luca!” Finn closed the distance in seconds, skidding to his knees and locking his hand around Luca’s forearm.

Luca’s teeth locked, his lips drawn back in a rictus of pain. Spit flecked his mouth. “Get her the fuck out.”

Blackness engulfed his legs, devouring their shape.

---