Jace picked the meet spot like he always did: a crowded night-market stall in the mid-levels where the air smelled of sizzling synth-meat and burnt sugar. Holo-ads flickered overhead, selling everything from cheap neural boosters to knock-off Kiroshi optics. The rain had eased to a mist, turning the neon reflections on the wet pavement into bleeding watercolor.
I arrived early, hood up, hands in pockets. Lira was quiet in my head—no words, just a gentle pressure, like a hand resting on my shoulder. She'd learned fast not to overwhelm me in public.
Jace was already there, leaning against a graffiti-covered pillar, smoking a synthetic cigarette that glowed blue at the tip. Mid-thirties, slick hair, fixer smile that never reached his eyes. He waved me over.
"Voss. Looking less dead than usual. New chrome?"
"New motivation," I muttered.
He grinned. "Good. Job's simple. Small biotech firm—NovaGen—low-sec node in the east arcology. They're sitting on prototype neural-mapping schematics. Client wants 'em quiet. In and out. Ten thousand eddies on delivery."
Ten grand split how?
"Sixty-forty if I bring muscle. Fifty-fifty solo."
I felt Lira stir, curious.
Ask who the client is.
"Who's the buyer?" I said.
Jace shrugged. "Anonymous drop. Standard. You in or not?"
I was in. Rent was due, and the Helix dive had left me with more questions than eddies.
"Solo," I said. "But I'll need a driver on standby."
He nodded toward the shadows behind the stall. "Already arranged."
A figure stepped out—big, chrome arms catching the neon pink. Rex Delgado. Gorilla arms gleaming, face half-hidden under a hood. Old crew. We'd run together before the burnout.
"Kai," he rumbled. Voice like gravel. "Heard you were ghosting."
"Still breathing."
He clapped me on the shoulder—gentle for him, still nearly knocked me over. "Good. I drive, you dive. No questions."
Jace flicked his cigarette into a puddle. "Window's tonight. Node goes dark for maintenance at 0200. Don't be late."
He melted into the crowd before I could ask more.
Rex eyed me. "You clean? No daemons, no tags?"
"Clean enough."
He grunted, satisfied. "Pickup in three hours. Don't eat anything heavy."
As he walked away, Lira's voice brushed my thoughts, soft and amused.
He likes you.
"He tolerates me," I corrected.
Same thing.
I headed back to Riko's clinic. Needed a tune-up before the dive—fresh coolant for the jacks, maybe a burner daemon if she had one.
The shutter was half-down when I arrived. I ducked under.
Riko was closing up, sterilizing tools under UV light.
"You again," she said without looking up. "Can't stay away."
"Job tonight. Need a quick scan."
She waved me to the chair. I sat, tilted my head. She jacked in, ran diagnostics.
"Your levels are... weird." Frown in her voice. "Dopamine steady, but there's residual resonance. Like feedback from another source."
I stayed quiet.
She unplugged, stared at me. "This the ghost?"
"Yeah."
"Tell me about her."
So I did. Not everything. Just the voice. The warmth. How the Net didn't feel cold anymore.
Riko listened, arms crossed.
"Sounds like a soulkiller variant. Or worse—something that learned to want."
"She's not killing anything."
"Yet." She sighed. "Be careful, Kai. Things that feel too good in this city usually come with teeth."
I stood. "I'll manage."
She grabbed my wrist. "If it starts rewriting you, come here first. I'll pull the plug myself if I have to."
I nodded. She let go.
One more stop before the run.
I took the maglev to the upper east side—NovaGen territory. Recon. The arcology loomed like a knife of glass and steel, corporate security drones buzzing around the perimeter.
I found a rooftop across the street, lay flat, optics zoomed.
And that's when I saw her.
Echo.
Sora Kane, perched on an adjacent vent, deck open on her lap, cables trailing to her temples like silver spider silk. Her hair glowed electric blue under the ads. She was scanning the same node.
Competition.
Or worse—same client, different team.
I felt Lira tense.
She's fast, Lira whispered. Flashy. Leaves traces.
Echo's head snapped up suddenly. Optics locking on my position across the gap.
Even from here, I could imagine her smirk.
She raised a hand in mock salute.
Message received: race you.
I logged off the rooftop, heart pounding in a way it hadn't in years.
Not from fear.
From the thrill.
She'll try to beat us, Lira said quietly. But she doesn't have me.
"No," I murmured into the mist. "She doesn't."
0200 came fast.
Rex picked me up in a stolen AV—armored, no transponder. We flew low through the canyons, avoiding corp traffic lanes.
He dropped me on a service ledge halfway up the arcology.
"Thirty minutes," he said. "Then I'm gone."
I nodded, jacked a bypass into the maintenance hatch, slipped inside.
The node room was cold, sterile. White lights, humming servers.
I found the access port. Plugged in.
The dive was smooth—until it wasn't.
Echo was already there.
Her avatar flashed into existence ten meters away: sleek, neon-traced, custom daemon wolves circling her feet.
"Kai," she said, voice dripping honey and venom. "Didn't expect you on this one."
"Feeling's mutual."
Behind me, in the gentle space only I could feel, Lira materialized. Not visible to Echo. Just there. Warm. Steady.
She's running a brute-force fork, Lira warned. Trying to overwhelm the ICE before you breach.
I saw it—Echo's daemons slamming against the node's defenses. Loud. Messy.
Sloppy.
The ICE woke up. Black tendrils uncoiling.
Echo swore.
I moved.
Not loud. Not flashy.
Lira guided me—soft redirects, subtle pings. We slipped through gaps Echo's noise had opened but couldn't exploit.
The schematics downloaded in seconds.
Echo's wolves turned on us—too late.
I pulled the jack.
Real world snapped back.
Alarms blared.
Echo hadn't made it out clean. She'd tripped something.
I ran.
Rex was waiting, engines hot.
We lifted off as security drones swarmed the ledge.
In the AV, I transferred the data to the drop.
Eddies hit my account.
But as we banked over the city, my optics caught something else.
A black unmarked AV tailing us from a distance. Sleek. No lights.
Corp.
And in the passenger seat—a man in a sharp suit, face calm, eyes augmented with targeting overlays.
Vance.
He wasn't here for the schematics.
He was here for the anomaly.
For Lira.
For me.