Chapter 17 · Walking Blind

"Don't you fucking move!" The blade hits my throat before my vision even clears.

Cold steel. Pressing hard enough to dent skin. My left eye is dead black. My right eye is strobing like a busted neon sign.

"Yeah? You sure you wanna do that?" I say. My voice doesn't shake. My hands do.

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" The guy behind me yanks me back. He stinks like cheap coolant and sweat. "You think you can just walk through our market half-chrome and not pay?"

I can't see him. That's the problem. Echo went dark three blocks back and took my overlay with him. Now I'm blind, glitching, and some junked-up kid has a box cutter to my jugular.

"I'm not here to shop," I hiss. "Let go."

"You got chrome," another voice snaps from my left. "Nice arm. That'll pay my rent."

Great. A crowd. I can hear them closing in. Boots on wet concrete. Hands grabbing. The whole night market in the undercity smells like fried oil and ozone and now blood. Mine, soon.

My chrome arm spasms. Blue arc jumps up my forearm. Shit. Not now.

"Back off!" I swing blind.