Chapter 43: The Bureaucracy of Survival
The bounty poster sat on the polished oak table of our suite.
Ten thousand Infamy was no longer just a metric on my Status Panel. It was a massive price tag on my head.
Even the luxurious private rooms we had rented could not keep the reality of that target out, especially knowing the cost of this suite and my surgery had drained the very last of our Academy stipends.
We were broke, hunted, and out of time.
Rolf paced the woven rug.
"We need to leave. If we scrape together what little coin we have left, we might be able to pay off a smuggler in the lower levels and get out of the city before the real killers track us down."
"No," I said, folding the poster and sliding it into my coat pocket.
"Running just makes us prey. Valerius has deep pockets, and the Union has a small army of hunters."
Kaelith leaned against her doorframe, her daggers spinning idly.
"Then we set traps in the industrial districts and bleed them out."
