Page 32 of GlitchBorn Heart

The silence that follows is suffocating. Ember’s hands are still on the console. Vikktor’s smile is fake; it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Put a meeting on my calendar,” he says smoothly. “Don’t waste my time or your energy. Scrub it.” The alarm on the door begins to erupt, but he ignores it. “You’re an architect, Kael. Let the CIC sweep up the mess so you can get back to your toys.”

And with that the lab door hisses closed.

What if I want the anomalies to be my latest toys?

This is something big, possibly a breakthrough, maybe related to the rebellion, and Ember knows it. She’s so terrified of Vikktor though, she’s frozen in place.

Must have made for a great childhood. Welcome to the bad dad club. Therapy will be handed out daily.

“You want me to call the CIC?” I press on, stepping closer to Ember. “Because if I do, you know there will be nothing left for us to study.” I glance once more at the pulsing lights.

“No.” Ember looks up at me, her eyes pulsing. She knows this could be a huge breakthrough as well and nothing excites her more than chasing knowledge.

“Look...” With a swipe of her hand, she brings up an error in LINK’s code for me to see on the wall. “Why does it look like LINK told TheKast to rewrite itself to hold the anomalies in place?”

I touch the lines of code running down the side of the screen. Why would my AI system, LINK, need to interact with TheKast? They run separately.

“Anomalies tethered together, like twin stars burning in a night sky. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The hairs on the back of my neck rise. “I’ll need to study this—not destroy it.”

Two seconds, and there he is. Ash. Like two ships passing in the night, he and Vikktor just missed crashing into each other. I blow out stale air in relief. Major security breach having him in the lab, even bigger problem if he’s caught.

Leaning against the doorframe like he owns the place, Ash looks barely winded despite the sheen of sweat glistening at his temple. The faint smell of overheated engine and exhaust clings to his jacket, a dead giveaway he didn’t exactly obey traffic laws getting here. I don’t have to ask. I’ve seen his car, a sleek, illegally modified hypercoupe with more black-market upgrades than half my lab. Instrumental to his street racing addiction.

I’d bet good money he didn’t use the sanctioned skyways. Probably took the low streets, as I did, weaving his ridiculous custom coupe through traffic, outrunning En4ce drones like it was one of his underground night races.

He twirls a guitar pick between his fingers restlessly. The man lives for speed, whether it’s on a stage, behind a wheel, or sprinting straight into trouble.

He’s running on adrenaline. “Tell me,” he says lightly, voice still riding the speed high, “that I didn’t just break like ten traffic laws and piss off half the city’s drones for nothing.”

I roll my eyes. “Ember, scrub him from the grid...again.”

She obeys, her fingers typing furiously on her keyboard terminal.

“Relax. It’s definitely something,” I reassure him.

Ash’s eyes flick to the spot where Vikktor stood moments ago. “So, I’m guessing he wasn’t here to tell you you won employee of the month?” He straightens, pushing off the frame, the pick snapping once between his fingers.

“Ash, don’t start,” I mutter, but he’s already hovering over the console, his glowing eyes locking in on the location of the anomalies.

“Two points. Synced. Big fucking energy. Wow.” He stops dead, eyes focused, trying to lock in on the vibrations I’m sure are emanating from the source. For once, he’s not smiling.

“What is it?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. “What do you know?”

He doesn’t answer right away. He just stares at the lights. They’re speaking a language only he can hear. Finally, he drags his gaze from the screen to Ember, who’s trying too hard to look busy with her data scrub.

“You believe her?” he asks me flatly, tilting his head toward Ember. “That this is just ‘noise?’ ” Clearly he had been standing outside the lab door for a while.

“Vikktor said...” Ember cuts in, but Ash shuts her down impatiently.

“Vikktor would call a goddamn earthquake noise if it didn’t serve his purposes,” Ash snaps, stepping closer to the grid. The lights throb again, brighter now. He lowers his voice. “No, this...this feels like an accident. Like a warning of something catastrophic trying to break through. Someone can’t control their gift.”

I scoff. “Break through what?”

“DreamNet, GameNet, the grid...” Ash shakes his head, lips pressed tight, refusing to elaborate. His gaze lingers on the synced anomalies as if he knows something I don’t, and he’s not about to hand it over.

Ember clears her throat, her voice steady but her eyes fixed firmly on Ash. “You two really should listen when Vikktor gives an order. Some things aren’t meant to be dissected.”

Ash lets out a snicker. “Yeah, Red? Well, I don’t work for Daddy, so maybe some things aren’t meant to stay buried.”