Page 21 of GlitchBorn Heart

Ember picks up the device off the ground. It resembles a small round, white ball in her hand. She stares into the map intently taking note of all the blips showing the sites for anomalies around the city.

Ash smirks. “Careful, sweetheart. That thing bites.”

Ember locks eyes with him, tosses her chin-length bob, and pockets it after giving it a toss in the air. “So do I.”

I groan. It’s all I can manage because I’ve had a rough night at the lab, and I already know this is going to be a shitshow. “Dr. Vosse, can you grab the data chips we need for tomorrow’s update? I need a minute here.”

Her smoldering amber eyes are unblinking; she’s still sizing up Ash. “Yes, Dr. Ryudon.” Ember pulls her DataLINK out of the scarf-like tech wrap around her neck. It’s where she hides tiny tools, thumb drives, and self-defense gadgets.

“Must have been a damn good TekkGirlScout!” Ash adds, following her every move.

“Can we focus here please? I’m already going to have to scrub you off yet another one of Vikktor’s watchlists after tonight.” I shake my head, taking my hands out of my pockets.

Ash smirks without looking up. “Nice uniform, Company Boy. You blend right in down here. The hoodie is so gangster.”

I ignore the jab and cross my arms. “You’re on three different watchlists. If you set off any more alarms or anyone spots you with that tech, you’ll be in a van by midnight.”

He goes back to packing up his booth, guitar slung across his back like a weapon, fingers dancing across the exposed circuitry of a stolen comm unit. He stomps on a part of a downed drone, sparks flying up his leg.

“You’re going to fry yourself one of these days,” I comment, standing behind him in his shadow.

“Good thing you’re here then.” He finally glances up, another grin sliding across his face. “I’m sure you’ll just erase me again, or am I just so damn charming that even the Corp can’t keep me locked in their little system?”

I sigh. He really is a pain in my ass. “You think this is a game, but every time I wipe your name, it gets harder to hide it. One day, Ash, I won’t be able to cover you.”

The grin falters for just a second. Then Ash shoves a couple of hacked comms into a duffle bag. “You always say that.” His voice is a bit lighter than it should be. “And yet here I am breathing, playing, not in a corporate jail.”

I can feel my jaw tighten. “You make it sound like I’m the enemy.”

Ash zips the duffle bag, those crazy eyes glowing. “You wear their fancy suits, their corporate colors. That’s all anyone out here sees.” He lets the words hang in the thick air, then softens them with a crooked smile. “But me? I know better. I know you’d vaporize the Corporation if I asked you to.” He walks toward me, chest-to-chest. “Or if she asked you to...”

I don’t answer right away. Don’t have to. He knows something I don’t...again.

SHE.

The silence between us lingers as my thoughts race. “She who?” I give him a puzzled look. But I know he can sense it, the unhealthy infatuation I have with the girl from STATIK, a perfect puzzle meant for me to decode.

Ash turns back for a moment on his way out. “Your little sun is about to burn out if you don’t do something fast. Arrogant as you are my friend, I still don’t want to see you get fried.”

“Dr. Ryudon,” Ember rejoins me with a small black bag filled with the illegal items we need for the next upgrade of our experimental cybernetics lab. “I have everything, I think we need to get back to the lab and have a look at the anomalies that surged tonight.” She motions to the glowing stairs.

“Can you...?” I twirl my tattooed fingers around in the air “You know...” I’m asking her to cast her illusion veil discreetly. She lifts her finger up casually as if she’s pointing to the sky, bending the light to create a cloaking field. “We don’t need anyone recognizing us down here.” I dash to the side of her.

“Of course, Doctor.” She leads, tapping her implant behind her ear to call her car to the end of the alley. Before it arrives, out of the corner of my eye a flash of an image breaks into a screen set up for one of the vendors. A dragon, black and iridescent flying straight into the sun. It doesn’t stop, doesn’t falter, just continues on its death path then explodes into white light.

9

CodeRed

Playlist: Stripped (Remastered) - Matte Blvck

Lyra

I thought about Ash all night as I walked home from VikkCorp. His comment about the RedRoom in DreamNet was meant to be flirtatious...but it really got me thinking. How long has it been since I was on a date? I mean, I do spend most of my time working, and when I’m not working, I’m pulling a side hustle for extra food card credits, sketching illegal images of the beach, sunsets, anything pulled from my memories.

I swipe my hand over the codepad in our apartment door. It’s a nice apartment for my brother and I, of course, supplied by VikkCorp for its employees, cozy but modern. I step inside, shaking the raindrops from my hair and littering them on the floor like a trail of fallen confetti. ”Hey, Bro!”

Eli is at the dining room table, hunched between actual books, LINKpads, and various tech, all being used for studying at the university. “Looks like you’re pulling another all-nighter?” I kick off my boots. “Brought sushi!” I smile and wave the bag in front of him annoyingly.