Chapter 86: Bait
The PR prep room at five-forty in the morning was lit by the kind of fluorescent tube the human eye was not designed to be looked at by.
Caleb sat in the catalog chair. He had been in the chair for nine minutes.
Tali was kneeling at his right hip with a soldering iron and a piece of equipment that did not appear on any Seventh Division parts inventory.
"Hold still," she said. "If I crook this line, your right thigh sensor will pick up a heart rate from your femoral artery and your left rib sensor will pick up a heart rate from somewhere else, and I won't be able to tell which one to listen to."
"Where's the other heart rate coming from."
"That's the wrong question, Mercer."
"Right. Sorry."
"You ask better questions when you're scared. You should be scared today."
"I'm scared today."
"Good. Hold still."
The private channel ticked once behind his ear.
