Page 120 of Neon Flux

“Because I wrote it.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Cy’s voice snapped in my ear, jarring me out of the trance I’d fallen into while staring at the glowing symbols on my screen.

Hiromi looked puzzled. “How can that be? This screams AI. Nothing else could’ve created the encryption and language model. Even my programs struggled with it, which means the AI that wrote this has to be beyond even the highest-level corporate programming—”

I stood up.

“I’m sorry, Hiromi. I can’t explain it either.” I grabbed my coat from the back of the chair as I heard him rise behind me. “I know I promised you a drink, but this can’t wait. Raincheck?”

He just gave me that gentle smile he always wore. “Of course, E. I know how deadlines can be. I just hope you won’t make me wait too long. I let you get away once. I’m not going to let that happen again.” He stepped toward me, his dark eyes burning in a way that caught me off guard. He gently grabbed my fingers before lifting them to his lips, planting a soft kiss on my knuckles.

I felt my cheeks heat as he held my gaze the entire time. “Hiromi…”

“Stop eye-fucking each other. Get your ass back here and explain what the fuck is happening.”

I ground my teeth. “Soon. I promise.” I pulled my hand back and turned before I could get any redder. Then a thought struck me, one I couldn’t ignore.

“DITA, disable connection.”

DITA chimed affirmatively in my ear, severing the link to Cy before I spoke again.

“Hiromi, you’re pyroteknik. Have you ever met someone your Flux resonated with?”

“Resonate? Like in the movies? That’s not a real thing. If that’s what you’re worried about—”

“No. Thanks again, Hiromi.” I left without looking back.

Somehow,Cy had convinced me to review the translation with him at POM Headquarters. I hadn’t fought it. I knew having their computational resources would help with whatever the hell was going on. The upper floors had been empty when we arrived—not uncommon on a Friday evening at 9 p.m.—but Basement Six had been bustling with activity. POM Security never seemed to have off hours. Cy dragged me into a small conference room, not saying much, which had me on edge.

There was a couch in the cramped space, and I sat back on it, tension still curled in my body.

“So, you going to explain what the hell is going on?”

I curled my lip at him but threw the information Hiromi had given me up on the holoprojector in the center of the room.

The translated code scrolled by slowly. It had been over six months since I’d seen it, but I’d stared at it for three years before that—I wouldn’t forget it.

“This code. It was from a project I worked on with Professor Tanaka at Elysium, back when I was in her lab. It was…off the books, let’s say. The professor was convinced we could digitize the human consciousness—said it would change everything. I thought it was bogus, but it was—”

“An interesting puzzle?” Cy chimed in, smirking as he glanced at the screen. “What was the end goal?”

“Same one people have been seeking since the beginning of time: immortality. Your brain, stored on a chip that could be backed up and safeguarded.”

“Surprised your rebellious professor was interested in something like that.”

Something about his words tugged at my mind. A clue I didn’t want to see. A truth I didn’t want to know. I tucked it away and forged on.

“She wasn’t really, but I know she got big funding for it. Probably from some bioTech corp—hell, maybe even from POM. She had to keep the lights on. Anyway, I worked on it for three years. It was all theoretical, of course, and unfinished…but it looks like someone tried to finish it.”

“Tried to?”

I shrugged. “I mean, it makes sense in theory, right? The human brain is a collection of electrical impulses—not so different from those on a computer chip. If we could translate that to machine language, why couldn’t we copy it over? In fact, I made a copy of my brain. Took for-fucking-ever, but it was all mapped out. My whole life, reduced to 2.5 petabytes.”

“But you never got it to work?”

I shook my head. “No, there was always something missing. Always frustrated the hell out of the professor. But I think it was…”

Cy looked at me then, his eyes searching. He raised his eyebrows in silent question.