Page 110 of GlitchBorn Heart

This sounds as easy as walking on a tightrope.

A rush of emotion takes over, my mind instantly questioning him on his motives. This is my brother we’re talking about. “You really are planning to break every sacred rule you ever wrote. That’s not like you, Kael.” I don’t look away.

“I wrote them. I can unwrite them.” He stares directly into my eyes.

I fold my arms across my chest. “But let’s be clear. I know what you do to anomalies. You find them. You study them. And then they vanish. Dead, erased, whatever neat little code word VikkCorp uses to sleep at night.” My throat tightens.

“For all I know, you’ll do the same to Eli...and to me.”

There, I said it. He won’t be happy with me, but at least he’ll consider my trust issues with him.

His jaw flexes, eyes peering, and I see him lock onto Jett, as if words are being spoken I can’t hear. But he says nothing to me. No answer is worse than denial because his silence feels like confirmation.

“As I was saying, Ash, it’s paramount that you locate Eli through his vibrational signature. That way Jett knows exactly where he’s going, when he drops from the game.”

Shit, I laugh to myself. He’s ignoring me and for some reason that makes me even more furious and even more infatuated.

Traitorous body and mind.

I invade his space to ensure I have his full attention. “And if he panics? If Eli feels it’s a trap?”

“That’s where Jett comes in. Plan B. He won’t drop. He’ll stay in with us and attempt extraction inside, pull the void from Eli before it destabilizes the system. Ash and I have coded the framework for the harness already. It looks like a normal DreamBand, but it will quell Eli’s magic. It won’t stop it, just lessen the effect. If it works, Eli won’t even realize it’s happening.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Ash asks, leaning back in his chair, boots crossed on the console.

Kael doesn’t recoil. “Then we’re fucked, and we contain him. Fast.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “Contain. That’s corporate speak for kill,” I chime in.

He meets my eyes, like he’s daring me to say another word. “No. You’ll have to slap the harness on his wrist immediately. You’ll have to stay in with him, because you’re already inside.” He turns back to everyone else.

“Survival. If it goes sideways, we’ll have to ghost each other to get out before he voids the system. Then abort. The objective is to get him out without triggering the void.”

The tension hangs thick until Jett speaks up once again. “Once Eli’s under control, someone will need to ghost me so I can get up to the top floor.”

“I will,” Kael says immediately with a dangerous grin.

“Lyra”—Jett turns to me—“I will be taking him off-grid. Relocating him. I’ll teach him what his power means. He’ll be safe from VikkCorp, safe from Vikktor...and eventually reunited with you. Are you okay with that?”

“If he’s safe, then yes.” The words hurt to release them, but I have no other choice.

Kael interrupts, possessiveness surfacing before he buries it. “You’ll take him when I say you take him. Not a moment before.”

Ember finally speaks up from her corner. “My father is still in NeoTokyo, but what if CIC notifies him that Eli’s missing?”

Kael shuts down the screen with a flick of his hand. The game grid collapses into darkness. “Then he’ll believe Eli escaped. Unfortunate for him. Nothing more. That’s above my pay grade.”

Silence. The plan is dangerous and fragile, but it’s all we have. I have to keep Eli from voiding.

Ash breaks the tension with a wide smile. “So...1920s speakeasies, jazz, and tommy guns? Damn. Couldn’t have picked a better decade, Kaze. Zoot suits it is!”

I smile at him nervously.

“We’re threading a live anomaly into a live simulation. If he knows it’s a lure and he voids, I’m not sure we’ll be safe,” Ember continues.

“Eli won’t hurt anyone.” Saying it feels like half-command, half-faith. “He’s volatile, not stupid. In GameNet, he’ll think he’s found a pocket of reality he can escape to...or at least I hope he does.” I shrug.

“If the pull is coordinated, and the harness does its thing, the void won’t have a clean seam to grasp. We simulate escape, we actually extract.” Kael maps it out in the air with his finger, then turns away, I notice a flash of orange-gold in his eyes and ink. “Get ready. Once we’re inside, there’s no margin for error.”