Apex Five: Mech Elite novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Ronan's Burn

Ronan's POV

I woke up in a med bay with a tube in my arm and the taste of copper in my mouth.

The ceiling was white.

Somewhere above it, sixty thousand people were making a noise I recognized.

It was the noise of a crowd watching someone win.

I tried to sit up, and my head tried to come off.

A League doctor in a green coat pushed me back down with one hand.

"Don't," she said. "Your cradle burned open again. You are lucky to be breathing."

"The match."

"Black Meridian advances. Pryce forfeited when their captain pulled out of the Ring." She checked a monitor. "Miss Calder dragged your frame out of there herself, with a wounded arm. She won't leave the corridor."

I closed my eyes.

I could see her.

Old Nail on its good knee, the blade still lit, the core strapped behind her head, and a hundred cameras on her while she hauled my black frame across the Ring by one shoulder.

I had told her not to let go.

She never did.

I had known her link was wrong for three years, and I had said nothing.

"Doctor," I said. "How long?"

"The burn will spread. The cradle's contact points are already inflamed, and the damage is on the surface of the brain."

"How long?"

"Without a reset, perhaps forty-eight hours. After that you will have seizures." She looked at me with sympathy. "There is a reset. It's a reverse pulse, tied to the original Anchor design. I'm told the access code is held by Pryce Dynamics."

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