“It’s too late!” Iris screamed. “We lost connection with him after his second bomb detonated. He was having trouble setting the timer. . . .” Her voice broke. “Lingyi told him to go, but he didn’t listen.”

Someone else grasped my other hand. “Please, Jason.” Daiyu. “We’ll all die. Please come with us.” I could see the tears streaking down her face, despite her filth-smudged helmet.

Somehow, I knew Daiyu wouldn’t let me go without following. And although I was content to run toward my own death, I couldn’t let hers be on my conscience, too. I nodded and let Daiyu lead us again to the exit. Iris brought up the rear, as if she didn’t trust me not to break away again.

Maybe she understood me better than I realized.

We swayed on our feet as the building rocked, crashing to our knees over and over again. This must be what hell is like, I thought, unable to breathe, unable to see, surrounded by the rumbling of earth and stone and gulping death with each inhalation. I ran after Daiyu in a haze, only aware of our fingers twined together, my other hand clutching Iris’s.

My mind kept riffling through memories of my friend, offering stark images, snapshots in time.

Victor tying the bow tie for my tuxedo with care. I’m nothing without you, Victor, I joked. I know, he replied with that devilish grin.

Victor leaning over me, his dark eyes filled with concern. After he basically shoved me out of a high-rise window. You all right, kid?

Victor, the pain-in-the-ass older brother I’d never had. No, I wasn’t all right. Nothing will be right again.

I was supposed to be the dispensable one. I was supposed to take the majority of the risks. Not Victor, who had doubts about all of this from the start. Not Victor, who could charm his way out of anything.

But not this time.

Daiyu finally stopped at a steel door that required a brain wave scan. Her face was flushed and pallid in alternating beats as the red lights flickered around us. She began tugging at her helmet, then pulling at her collar, but her fishbowl wouldn’t budge. “Could you get the helmet off me?” she asked. “My suit is dead.”

The purple neon lights of her suit had dimmed. I pulled out my knife and wiped my eyes, still coughing. But I held my breath and lay a hand on Daiyu’s shoulder. “Don’t move,” I said.