Chapter 29 · Iron Arena - Chapter 29: The Leash Lights Up

Cole's dead ID chip buzzed against his collarbone at three in the morning.

He jolted upright on the cot, hand already halfway to his throat. The implant hadn't pinged in three years. Not since he'd walked out of the League headquarters with his career in ashes and his sync rating scrubbed from every official record. He'd paid good money to make sure it stayed dead.

But now the damn thing was live again. Warm. Pulsing soft and steady like a second heartbeat.

Varen asset. Top-priority recall.

The words scrolled across the inside of his eyelids, burned into his optic nerve by whatever reactivation signal had just dragged his chip back online. He pressed his thumb against the skin, felt the heat underneath. Someone had flipped a switch. Someone with access he didn't want to think about.

Lila was still asleep in the corner, curled up on a pile of shop rags with her jacket pulled over her head. She'd crashed hard after the broadcast. After hijacking the city feed and dumping Ivy's files and Mara's code onto every screen in the district. After making sure everyone saw what the sync tech really did.