Page 41 of GlitchBorn Heart

A warning? No. A cleverly disguised threat. This is Vikktor Vosse.

I’d capitulated, sort of, out of loyalty, but mostly because the anomalies had already wrapped themselves around my mind. I was going to do what I had to do, because I needed the data more than I needed the fight.

“These two anomalies are no longer your jurisdiction. They belong to CIC enforcement now. Consider it...streamlining.” Vikktor dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “Going forward all your time will be dedicated to furthering the cybernetics research and building my security team of the future.”

I snap back into the moment, a delivery drone startling me by glitching and bumping against the lab window. Now, staring at the glowing map in my lab, I know Vikktor is rolling this out tonight. Whatever he’s releasing into TheKast, this purge, it’ll light up my grid. Maybe it will bring it down. Serves him right.

My fingers hover over the console, the map pulsing like a living thing on the glass. The anomalies twitch, almost as if they sense what’s coming. If they could only flare again so I could get an exact location.

If Vikktor has his hands in this, then I need mine deeper. This, in fact, is my battle and I’m not ready to die on this hill.

“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.”

—Sun Tzu—The Art of War

I swipe across the grid, opening a hidden channel buried three firewalls beneath VikkCorp’s surveillance system. Only Ember knows it exists, and even she thinks it’s only a stress-testing protocol.

With a few keystrokes, I reroute the anomaly data stream through my private loop and have LINK send it to my hard drive at the penthouse. Whatever Vikktor unleashes tonight, it won’t just hit TheKast, it’ll land right here, in my lap. I’ll see it, dissect it, own it.

A warning flashes across the screen, and LINK chimes in loudly:

UNAUTHORIZED DIVERSION DETECTED

OVERRIDE DR. RYUDON?

I override it with a single code phrase only I have knowledge of.

The monitor dims, the reroute locks into place, and the anomalies flare brighter than before. I can almost feel their heat bleeding through the screen, calling me like a siren song.

Leaning back in my chair, I allow myself the ghost of a smile. “Your move, Vikktor.”

For the first time, I’m not just reacting to him. I’m playing his game. You never know when the genocide card will need to be played, revealing just how evil Vikktor Vosse really is.

A flicker of neon from outside the building washes over the lab’s glass walls, causing my eyes to quickly adjust to the contrast of the darkness in my office. I don’t know if this makes me more dangerous or more trapped.

Ash once said to me, “You pretend you don’t see the bodies piling up, but you still take the paycheck. That’s not innocence, Kael, it’s cowardice dressed as research.” His words play in a feedback loop in my head.

I stand to lean over my desk, fists braced against the edge. My reflection stares back from the grayed glass, fractured by lines of code LINK is running. Dark tired eyes, haunted...that’s me. Every damn day.

“Just hold it together long enough for me to see what you are,” I murmur to the anomalies, to the ghosts dancing on the feed.

And for the first time, I think I agree with Vikktor.

He was right about my obsession.

16

DreamInterrupted

Playlist: Dreams - David Guetta, MORTEN, Lanie Gardner

Lyra

By evening, my body is vibrating with exhaustion and unease. I curl up on my bed, clutching the DreamNet band in my hand. Its sleek surface feels heavier than it should, a weight pressing me toward the inevitable. Not tonight, Ash said.

In a few hours it will be TheKast, and the world as I know it could change. Tomorrow, Eli and I could possibly cease to exist, and in a sick, strange sort of way, that feels oddly comforting.

But tonight, tonight I just have to survive.