Karrel threw her head back and laughed. "Is that supposed to make me grovel?" she said. "You said it so ominously, but it's just a number."

Thirteen clicked the safety off. "For you, maybe," he answered. "It's everything I hope to be."

"Bad luck?" She braced her hip, switching her weight to one foot. At least she wouldn't lunge at him from that stance. That, or she was purposefully lowering his guard. He kept his finger on the trigger. It was his disadvantage, being here. What was to stop Karrel from carving an ear or two? As long as he lived, it wouldn't matter if there was a counter or not.

He inclined his head to the side. "To some people, that's true."

She snorted. "No kidding," she said. "How did you get in here?"

"Are you looking for the whole story, or the one that would save both of our time?" Thirteen asked.

Karrel hummed. "You have a minute," she said. "Spill everything, else I will gut you like fish."

"I'll get straight to the point then." Thirteen leveled his gaze at her and adjusted his hold on the gun. Should she attack him, she'd have a hole in her head in the first second. She knew that. Maybe. "It's simple. I got a hold of a shapeshifting ability and instructed them to isolate you from your comrades. The barn was the best bet."

She narrowed her eyes. Her loose ringlets reminded him of runny eggs whenever One messed up the cooking time. "Where is Kalyani?" she demanded. "Did you hurt her?"

He shrugged. "A little bump in the head. She won't die from it." He waved a hand in the air, projecting an air of nonchalance and alertness at the same time. For someone reading his body language, they'd be confused now. Did he want to flee? To click the trigger? Or was he in a mood for mind games? Who knew? Even he didn't.

"All it takes to distract you while we keep your team occupied is that light display." He jerked his chin at the black box on the floor. When Karrel turned to it, he aimed at it and pulled the trigger. A stringent gunshot rang in the air. She flinched. Her arms flew over her head. By the time she whirled back to him, the gun's muzzle was back to her. "A precaution, really. I don't want you finding out how I did that."

Karrel cleared her throat. She might want to dislodge the ball of fear in it. "So you programmed a few light bulbs to say that," she said. "Explains the timing issues."

"I admit I need to work on that," he said.

"What did you do to my friends?" She stalked forward but he feinted a click on the trigger. The mechanism bounced back, but it came close to firing. "Where are they?"

"Lost in their fantasies." He kept a smirk on his face, enjoying how Karrel's eye began twitching. Was she stressed that much? This wasn't even the best thing in his catalog. "I won't hurt them. Don't worry. But I might, depending on your willingness to cooperate."

"Seeing as you're willing to go through great lengths to have a word with me, I'll grant you the chance," she said. "You have two questions. Maximum."

Two questions? That was more than enough. He stepped back. His gun never left Karrel's face. Her light brown skin was the brightest target in this room anyway. "I have been watching. Your ability is what makes you good in all combat techniques. Am I correct?"

A knowing glint passed across Karrel's eyes. "You blew your first chance, genius," she said. "Because I won't talk about my ability to someone who had the gall to threaten me with a flimsy firearm."

"If this is flimsy, then why are you not attacking?" Thirteen said. "That's rhetorical, by the way. You either are waiting for something to happen outside, which is improbable, waiting for a counter to miraculously save the day because you're scared of what the consequences may be, or you're expecting something else. From me."

Karrel tilted her head to the side. "You're smart, I'll give you that," she said. "Which of the three do you think is my case?"

"I'd say the third one," he said. "Am I close?"

"Is that your second question?" She threw back a smug smirk at him. Hers was nastier though. "Because if it's not, I'm not inclined to answer."

He got all he needed, though. Just from the way her cheeks tightened and her shoulders tensed ever so slightly. Her fingers curled in on themselves as if in shock before being smoothed down by executive function telling her to calm the hell down in front of a stranger. The third option, it was. His calculations never lied, because this time, he wasn't wrong.

"What do you know about the chips in our wrists?" he ventured. If she said she didn't know, then, he would have given her an important tidbit about this game and everyone here. This was a three-way crossing, with the last path pertaining to Karrel toying with him by answering in cryptic words. She could lie, and he could believe it. Nobody would know, except their innermost being.

Karrel scoffed. "All this trouble for that?" She threw her ringlets behind her shoulder. The fringes still needed work, but she looked good enough for someone who probably just woke up. When he didn't answer, she blew a breath and glanced up. "I discovered them way back, when we first attacked the other sections. I think it was around the second counter. A dead body emits blue light, right?"

A nod was all he could offer her. They discovered it that early? Now that he thought about it, he noticed the blue light at the first counter. He was just distracted by the trivial problems like...hmm, surviving.

She checked her nails even though they were pushed to the beds. Anything to distract her from the fact she was being forced to spill everything she knew from someone she considered an enemy. What stopped her from lying, though? "It connects to our abilities, for sure," she said. "I studied the ones we gathered. There's a different pattern in each one. Almost like a code that stands for something."

A code? Every chip was different? Great. This has gotten more interesting now. "What do you think they do? Are they tracking us?"

"If you mean those beyond this city, I'd say yes," Karrel said.

Thirteen squinted. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it." She lowered her arm and faced him fully. Her expression told him she genuinely cared for his well being because they were in this together. Sucked for her, he saw right through that. But she didn't lie. When would she start? He could only wonder. "Where do the stacks of packets and other supplies come from every month? Who takes care of the dead bodies? It sure ain't us. And have you found some places you can't access? Places you are just not allowed to go?"

A memory flashed into his mind. The black books. There were still doors in the building he couldn't open even with Five's help. He had been busy with the counters and making sure nobody died to even spare them a couple of minutes. And now that Karrel was pointing it out...

"From your face, I'd say you've found your fair share," she said. "It amazes me how long it's taken you. But there are people watching." She pointed a finger towards the barn's ceiling. "Up there."

"I hope it's not the gods," Thirteen quipped.

Karrel chuckled. Had she always had those bumps under her eye when she smiled a little too widely? "That's all we can do, honestly. Hope." She licked her lips. "Because if they can contain us and force us to slaughter each other in between windows of alarms and bells, they might as well be."

Thirteen lowered his gun. He spread his feet to be ready to bolt should Karrel go back on her word of not hurting him. He tapped into his comms. "Let them go," he said into Flint's channel. No one answered. Good boy. He faced Karrel again. "Grant me safe passage out of here. That's my price for letting you live."

She stalked towards him instead, bumping shoulders with him on her way. "You let go too early, little genius," she whispered. "I will pray for your safe passage, but I won't hold Verez back from skewering your pretty face."

He returned the malicious grin. "I'd like to see you try," he said. "Won't it make those above us angry enough to punish you? What's the use of coming this far, only to have that happen?"

By the way she drew away as if tasered, he hit a nerve. She rolled her eyes. "I don't want to see you again," she said. "Get out of my sight."

Thirteen stuck his gun into the band of his trousers. "Lucky for you," he said. "The next time you see me, it'll be at the tip of my comrades' blades."

Karrel pushed the barn's doors open. The bar Slate jammed across it was gone now. "I'll look forward to that, little genius," she said over her shoulder. "I'll look forward to that."

By the time he got back to the fortress' lobby, the sun had gone down, splashing a carpet of ink across the blue sky. The midnight shadows followed him into the dingy welcome hall only to spot more silhouettes hurrying towards him.

"Where have you been?" One demanded. Ah, so Seven talked after all. He had been right to lose the boy in the sewers. "You've been gone for hours!"

Thirteen stuck his hand into his pocket. "I'm not inclined to answer that," he said. God, how satisfying that was—saying that aloud to a different soul. "Now, if you excuse me—"

A hand clamped around his arm, stilling him. "Wait a second." It was Five this time. What now? He turned to find her blazing amethyst eyes trained on him. They made her look insane. "What are you hiding this time, Thirteen?"

He drew a hard drive from his pocket, the one he slipped out of Karrel's vest when she got too close in the barn. It was always a good deal, the higher the risks. "I got our ticket out of this place," he said. "Bear with me a little longer, will you? I don't need to tell you everything. Just trust me."

He squirmed out of Five's grip and stalked up the stairs. His memory was the only thing guiding his muscles through the ordeal. Let them mount rebellions and oppositions. Let them be frustrated and angry at him. Secrets were a currency he would never find elsewhere. And in this world where the strongest wasn't decided by ability or natural strength, they were his way of climbing to the top.

Now, another gateway to more secrets has opened. It might have been lined with thorns, but he had everything to lose and nothing to gain. There was no other choice but to walk forward.

Section H would fall. Give him a week. Less, even.