“How’s it going out there?” Tyler’s voice came over the com. “Suit looks good.”

I gritted my teeth. “Don’t jinx it.” A lot could happen in eighteen minutes.

“Just stay calm. So I was thinking that I need your help.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, thankful for the distraction. “With what?”

“Audrey won’t even entertain the thought of a date with me—”

I laughed.

“I know. I know. I can’t even take Audrey on a real date here, but I thought if Ahiga could hook me up with—”

The alarm went off, and my heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t the dinging of the end of my shift. This was the high-pitched squealing alarm that meant something was wrong with my suit.

“Fuck.” I dropped the hose, letting it hang at my hip as I started to run.

Tyler had extra coolant in my suit, so it was only 97 degrees inside it, but the alarm wasn’t lying.

“I’m grabbing my suit.” Tyler’s voice came through my helmet. “What’s it saying?”

“E94.” The code was flashing on the display inside my helmet. “What does that mean?” It was getting hotter. It didn’t take a genius to realize I needed to hustle.

I pushed myself—sprinting for the elevator—but I was a good hundred and fifty meters away.

“The suit has a slow leak. Keep running. You’ll make it.”

Mother icing shit. Not again.

“I am.” But I wasn’t going to make it.

My lungs were already starting to hurt from the heat—125 degrees.

I wanted to throw up, but that would slow me down. I was already moving slow enough. The suit and the heat made it hard to move, but I pushed myself to run faster.

I punched buttons on the arm of my suit, trying to stop the alarm, as I moved toward the elevator. I was about to lose this fucked-up game of chicken Jason was playing with me.

“Tyler!”

“I’m already in the elevator, baby girl. I’m on my way down to get you with a truck. You just hang in there for me.”

After my first horrific day on the job, Tyler and Ahiga stayed up all night checking the extra suits that Matthew found to replace my melted one. Apparently, my show in the gym had convinced Matthew to be a little more helpful, but he still wasn’t spilling about the weapon.

Still, no matter what they did, something always went wrong. Each part of the suit had too much built-in tech. Diagnostics always checked out, but the suits were remotely monitored. It was now clear that someone was watching me during my shifts and causing the malfunctions.

The temperature was at 127. It was rising two degrees every second.

“I’m burning up! Please tell me you’re on the surface.”

“Almost.”