# Cold Ember: Gene Bound

Author: Evelyn Hart
Site: ReadNovelHub
Canonical: https://readnovelhub.com/novel/cold-ember-gene-bound
Genre: Cyberpunk-SciFi

## World
Control the weapon, or become the price of his freedom.

## Tropes
- Cyberpunk & Sci-Fi
- Cyberpunk-SciFi

## Chapter 1 teaser
### Monster in the Junkyard

"Get your hands off me!" Lila screamed, but the scavenger's grip was like a vice around her wrist. "Shut it, brat," Jax spat, dragging her through the rust-choked corridor of the Sector 4 dump. "You found a goldmine and thought you could keep it? In this hole? You're dreaming." Lila kicked back, her boot catching him in the shin. He didn't even flinch. He just yanked her harder, pulling her toward the center of the ruin where the air smelled like ozone and ancient death. "It's not a goldmine!" she gasped, stumbling over a pile of scorched circuitry. "It's a tomb! You don't want to wake whatever is in there!" Jax laughed, a wet, hacking sound. "If it's got a pulse, I can sell it. If it doesn't, I'll sell the parts. Either way, you're coming with me to show me the lock." He slammed her against a heavy, reinforced bulkhead. The metal was freezing, biting through her thin scav-rags. Above them, a single red light pulsed—slow, like a dying heartbeat. "The code," Jax hissed, his face inches from hers. He smelled like cheap synthetic gin and desperation. "Give me the sequence or I start breaking fingers. I've got all day, Lila. You don't." Lila glared at him, her chest heaving. "I don't know the code. I just found the key." "Liar." Jax grabbed her jaw, squeezing until her teeth groaned. "You've been sneaking down here for weeks. You know exactly what's behind this door. Now, tell me, or I'll see how much your brother's life is worth in credits." Lila froze. Her heart hammered against her ribs. "Leave him out of this." "Then open the damn door." Lila looked at the console. Her fingers trembled as she reached for the interface. She didn't have a code. She had a bracelet—a piece of salvaged tech her father had left her, humming with a frequency that shouldn't exist. She pressed t

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