The silent alarm was a high-frequency hum Jack's own agency tech filtered out, but the look on the guard's face was unmistakable. His eyes, the icy blue of a screen saver, blinked once, then a second time. A tiny, nearly imperceptible red light flashed behind the pupil.
Bingo, Jack thought, his heart a frantic drum against his ribs. The guard was a synth, an android.
The skin on his face, which a moment ago had been that of a corporate stooge named "Silas Miller," felt unnaturally taut. It was a mask, a state-of-the-art piece of tech given to him by the rival company he was hired by. He squeezed the data chip in his palm, its smooth, cold surface a stark contrast to his clammy skin. He was a hundred feet above the city, running for his life.
Behind him, the relentless rhythm of polished shoes on marble floors echoed in the cavernous hallway. Two security guards, their faces cold and unblinking, raised their rifles. Jack didn't look back. He ran. The small, humming data chip in his pocket felt like a live thing, a captive animal he had just set free. Go, go, go, it seemed to pulse against his thigh. He had unsealed its vault, and now the entire corporation was on a hunt for him.
He rounded a corner, sliding past a panicked CEO who dropped a briefcase full of paperwork. Jack didn't slow down. He could hear the guards' comms chatter, a stream of binary code in his earpiece. The chase was on. He had to get to the extraction point, but the exit was a dozen floors down and the guards were a dozen feet behind.
A sudden flash of light announced a third guard dropping from a ceiling vent above him, weapon raised. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, Jack's eyes scanned the corridor for an escape. There was only one. A massive, floor-to-ceiling glass window overlooked the city, a hundred floors below.
"Surrender now!" a voice boomed from the first guard.
But Jack had his own comms chatter now. The chip in his pocket, the one he had just told the AI inside was free, was now a voice in his head, a calming, electric whisper. Trust me, it seemed to say.
With no other choice, Jack didn't just run. He leaped. He drove his shoulder through the cold glass, a brilliant explosion of shards and glittery, falling diamonds. As the wind tore at his hair and the city lights blurred into a thousand shooting stars below, his mind, pushed to its limit, finally had room to think.
"How the heck did I get myself into this mess?"