Rain slick with neon drenched the shattered sidewalk as Kai Mercer ran down the undercity alleys. His lungs burned, and his neural HUD flashed crimson alerts; corporate stalkers were closing in on him. Another op had gone south.
Boots pounded against metal grates behind him. Envision Corp Enforcers moved forward like machines, their blue-lit armored faceplates shining. Kai sprang over a broken barricade of weathered metal, the stolen shard-drive concealed tightly within his jacket. He had no idea what was on the shard-drive, only that someone in the undercity had paid him enough credits to make it worth risking.
A bullet whizzed past his ear, smashing into a wall of holo-ads that screamed BUY. OBEY. UPGRADE. The city didn't care who lived or died, especially down here.
He veered into a dead-end tunnel. His heart raced. Static roared in his neural feed as his HUD glitched, lines of code flashing across his vision. His heart stopped. Someone was inside his head.
> "You're running out of time, Kai."
The voice was electronic and cold, but somehow human.
Kai whirled, gun coming up. Nothing—glowing neon graffiti and shadows.
> "Left wall, second panel. Move."
He didn't wait, just moved. Kicking free metal out of the way, he dropped through a maintenance hatch as bullets chewed through the air where he'd been.
He thudded into the darkness on the ground, his ribs aching.
Above, the enforcers cursed and scrambled frantically for him. His HUD flashed back online.
> "If you want to live, you'll listen to me."
Kai ground his teeth, staring at the shard-drive in his hand. "Who the hell are you?"
There was a moment of silence.
> "Your only chance."
The hatch above groaned open—boots struck the ladder.