The tip came at 0300.
"SSS knows your location," Hassan messaged. "Major raid planned. ETA six hours. Get Nico out. Now."
Kade forwarded it immediately. Then started planning.
Six hours. Not enough time to move Nico safely if SSS had the routes monitored. Which they would.
Unless Nico left alone. Undefended. Vulnerable.
Or.
Or someone bought him time.
"I'm not leaving you behind," Nico said when Kade explained.
"You're not leaving me. I'm staying. There's a difference."
"Kade—"
"Listen. You've got maybe 400K credits left. Enough to seed three more cooperatives. Enough to matter. But only if you're alive to distribute it." Kade pulled up tactical maps. "SSS will hit this location hard. Expecting you. If you're here, you're caught. If you're not here but they think you are, they waste time searching while you get clear."
"And you?"
"I slow them down. Make them think you're barricaded inside. Buy you a six-hour head start."
"That's suicide."
"That's tactics." Kade's smile was sad. "I've been dying since the moment I started using. Years ago. This way, it means something."
"I won't let you—"
"It's not up to you." Kade loaded a pistol—illegal, deadly, effective. "I've made my choice. Honor it by surviving long enough to make yours matter."
Maya appeared in the doorway. She'd heard. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't." Kade checked his ammunition. "SSS is coming with overwhelming force. They want Nico. Specifically. This is the play."
"Then we all fight," Maya said. "All of us. Together."
"No. You get Nico out. Keep the organizing school running. Fund the cooperatives. Build the movement." Kade's voice gentled. "I'm a used-up junkie with one good move left. Let me make it count."
Nico felt tears on his face. When had he started crying?
"You're my best friend."
"I know. That's why I'm doing this." Kade grabbed Nico's shoulders. "You showed me I could matter. That my wasted life could contribute to something bigger. Don't take that away from me now."
"Kade—"
"Go. Now. While you still can." Kade pushed him toward the exit. "Maya, get him out. That's an order. From a dead man, so you have to follow it."
Maya grabbed Nico's arm. Pulled him toward the secret passage.
Kade watched them go. "Hey, Nico?"
Nico turned.
"Thank you. For everything. For making me matter."
"You always mattered."
"I know. You taught me that."
Kade waited.
He'd rigged the safe house with makeshift defenses. Not enough to hold SSS. But enough to slow them. To make them think Nico was dug in.
At 0715, thermal scans would show one heat signature inside. Armed. Barricaded.
They'd think it was Nico.
By the time they breached and realized their mistake, Nico would be eight levels away. Safe.
Maybe.
Probably not.
But safer than if Kade wasn't here.
That was enough.
He pulled out his medical kit. Found the naloxone. Set it aside.
Found his vape pen. Loaded a fresh cartridge. Triple-concentrated Veil.
If he was going to die, might as well be high.
One hit. Two. Five.
The warmth spread through his chest. Familiar. Comfortable. Home.
Kade had been using for thirty years. Had tried to quit dozen of times. Had failed every time.
But this? This he wouldn't fail.
At 0845, SSS arrived. Seventy officers. Full tactical gear.
Commander Wright's voice boomed over loudspeakers: "Nico Chen, you are surrounded. Surrender immediately."
Kade fired three shots through the barricaded door. Warning shots.
The tactical team returned fire. The safe house shook.
"Chen! Surrender now or we will breach!"
Kade laughed. Fired again.
They wanted Nico? They'd get a used-up medic with a death wish instead.
Good enough.
The breach came at 0903.
Shaped charges. Professional. Overwhelming.
Kade had positioned himself behind the heaviest furniture. Gave him maybe thirty seconds of cover.
He used them.
Fired at the entry point. Forced the tactical team to take it slow.
Bought time.
SSS returned fire. The furniture disintegrated.
Kade felt the first impact: shoulder. Hot. Sharp. Still functioning.
Second impact: leg. Mobility gone. Still conscious.
Third impact: chest. Difficulty breathing. Getting light-headed.
He fired his last three rounds. Heard someone scream.
Good.
Let them remember this cost something.
The tactical team advanced. Kade raised his empty pistol.
"Where's Chen?" an officer demanded.
Kade smiled through blood-filled lungs. "Not here, asshole. Never was."
"Then who the fuck are you?"
"The reason he got away."
They shot him again.
The world went soft. Distant.
Kade thought about Nico. About Maya. About the forty-seven who'd died in the riot.
About Terrence Rodriguez, nineteen, who'd asked how to help and gotten death instead.
About Mrs. Huang, seventy, who'd served breakfast with arthritic hands because it made her feel useful.
About all the broken people he'd known in Level 8. All the addicts. All the discarded.
All the people who'd mattered despite the system insisting they didn't.
He'd been one of them.
And now—in this moment—he'd been more.
He'd bought time. Saved a friend. Made his death mean something.
Not bad for a used-up junkie.
Not bad at all.
The light faded.
Kade Rivera—medic, addict, friend—died on the floor of a safe house in Level 8.
Buying time for a revolution he'd helped build.
Worth it.