"Don't even blink, glitch. I can see your pulse jumping in your neck from here," Jaxon said, his voice a low, dangerous grate. He didn't move, but the air around him felt heavy, like a storm about to break. He was leaning against a rusted bulkhead, arms crossed, looking at me like I was a piece of faulty hardware he was deciding whether to scrap or sell.
I didn't blink. I couldn't. My vision was still flickering, red warnings scrolling across my retinas. *SYSTEM ERROR. MEMORY LEAK. CRITICAL FAILURE.*
"You're the key," I rasped. My throat felt like I'd swallowed a handful of glass. "The only one left with master access to the Gut's subnet. I need it."
Jaxon let out a sharp, mocking laugh. He finally moved, stepping into my space. He was tall—too tall—and smelled like ozone and expensive synthetic tobacco. He stopped just inches away, his chest nearly brushing mine. I could feel the heat radiating off him, a stark contrast to the damp chill of the scrapyard.
"Need it? That's cute," he whispered, leaning down so his lips were right by my ear. "Most people just ask nicely before they realize I don't do favors for dead girls. And you? You're very dead, Kael. The corp filed your death certificate three hours ago."
I didn't give him the satisfaction of a flinch. Instead, I moved.
It was a blur—a burst of Glitch-enhanced speed that left a trail of static in the air. Before he could even register the shift, I had my blade out. The cold steel was pressed hard against the soft skin of his throat. I could feel the vibration of his breathing against the metal.
"Then I'll just have to take it from a living man," I hissed.
Jaxon didn't gasp. He didn't even struggle. He just looked down at the blade, then back at me, a slow, predatory smirk spreading across his face.
"You're shaking," he noted. He didn't pull away. In fact, he leaned *into* the blade, letting the edge nick his skin. A tiny bead of crimson bloomed against the silver. "Scared? Or just malfunctioning?"
"Shut up," I snapped, pressing harder. "The access codes. Now. Or I find out if your neck is as reinforced as your ego."
"And if I say no?" He shifted his weight, and suddenly his hand was a vice around my wrist. He didn't just grab me; he twisted, using my own momentum to slam me back against the bulkhead. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and the blade clattered to the floor, echoing through the hollow chamber.
He pinned me there, his forearm pressing across my collarbone, crushing me into the metal. His eyes were dark, scanning my face with a clinical intensity that made my skin crawl.
"Here's the deal, Kael," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "You've got something in your head that shouldn't exist. The Glitch. Victor wants it. I want to know why it chose a washed-up assassin who couldn't even survive her own purge."
"I didn't choose this," I spat, struggling against his grip. My boots scraped the floor, trying to find leverage. "It just... happened."
"Happened?" He chuckled, his face so close I could see the gold flecks in his irises. "Nothing 'happens' in this city. Everything is a transaction. So, what are you paying me with? Your memories? Your loyalty? Or maybe just the pleasure of watching you burn from the inside out?"
I stopped fighting. I looked him straight in the eye, my breathing heavy, my chest heaving against his. The tension between us wasn't just about the fight. It was something sharper, a magnetic pull of two people who knew exactly how to kill each other and were suddenly curious why they hadn't done it yet.
"I can get you into the Inner Core," I whispered. "No one else can. Not with the current encryption. But I need a bridge. I need your keys to bypass the scan."
Jaxon paused. His grip loosened, but he didn't move away. His thumb brushed against the side of my neck, a gesture that was almost tender, if it wasn't for the fact that he was still holding me hostage.
"The Inner Core is a death sentence," he said.
"So is staying here," I countered. "The hounds are already on the scent. You can either help me and get a ticket to the top, or you can wait here and get caught in the crossfire when the purge squad levels this block."
He stared at me for a long beat. I could tell he was calculating—weighing the risk against the reward. The silence stretched, thick and heavy, broken only by the distant scream of a siren in the Neon Gut.
"Fine," he said, finally stepping back. "But we do it my way. You don't move without me. You don't speak unless I tell you to. And the second I think you're lying, I'll rip that protocol out of your skull myself."
"Deal," I said, though I already hated him.
"Good. Now, hold still."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a sleek, obsidian-black device—a neural link. It looked like a jagged piece of jewelry, designed to be implanted. He didn't ask. He just grabbed the back of my head and slammed the device against the port at the base of my skull.
White-hot pain exploded behind my eyes. I screamed, my body arching, my fingers clawing at the air. It felt like a thousand needles were stitching themselves into my brain.
"Stay with me!" Jaxon shouted over the noise of my own static. "Don't fight the link, or it'll fry your synapses!"
I tried to breathe, but the world was dissolving. The scrapyard vanished, replaced by a rushing torrent of gold and neon data. I saw flashes—a face I didn't recognize, a burning building, a voice whispering a name that sounded like mine but wasn't.
*Warning: External Sync Initiated.* *Target: Jaxon_Admin_01.* *Sync Rate: 12%... 24%...*
Suddenly, the pain shifted. It wasn't just pain anymore. I could feel *him*. Not his thoughts, but his presence—a cold, calculating hunger. He was searching. He was digging through my mind, looking for the Glitch, and I could feel the boundaries of my own consciousness blurring.
"Get... out..." I gasped, my voice sounding like it was coming from miles away.
"Almost there," he muttered. I could hear his voice inside my head now, echoing in the void. "Just a little deeper..."
Then, the system spiked. A massive red alert flared across my vision, blinding me.
*CRITICAL ERROR: CITY SCAN DETECTED.* *SENSORS: ACTIVE.* *STATUS: EXPOSED.*
"Dammit!" Jaxon yelled. The connection jerked, pulling us both back into reality with a violent snap. I collapsed to my knees, gasping for air, my vision swimming in jagged polygons.
Jaxon was standing over me, his face pale. He was looking at the holographic display projecting from his wrist. The timer was counting down in bright, bleeding red.
"What... what happened?" I managed to ask.
"The city's active scan just pinged us," he said, his voice tight. "The link we just formed? It created a signature. A big, loud, 'come-and-kill-us' beacon that every corporate hound in the sector can see."
I looked up at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Can you mask it?"
"I can," he said, glancing at the timer. "But there's a catch. The sync is unstable. To hide us, I have to keep the link open. But the feedback loop is asymmetric."
I frowned. "English, Jaxon."
He looked down at me, a grim expression on his face. "It means the system is draining one of us to keep the other invisible. And according to the readout..."
He paused, the timer hitting ten seconds.
"If this fails," Jaxon whispered, "I'm the one who dies first."