Page 121 of Neon Flux

“I think it was…the soul. I could download my brain onto a drive, but it didn’t make italive. Didn’t make itme. We could never make an AI that could read the data like a personality construct. They all turned out the same.”

“Not enough data?” Cy asked.

“Too much. Too many erratic thoughts and patterns that don’t correlate with brain activity. That was the theory, anyway. The AIs all just sort of crashed in on themselves or devolved into very basic personalities. You can teach an AI to act like you, maybe even think like you. But it’s notyou. Definitely not something alive. Not sentient.”

“Legal will be thrilled to hear that, with all the AI rights protests going on.” His eyes flashed and his lip curled. “Never took you for the religious type—believing in souls.”

He was teasing me.

I huffed. “I’m not. There are just…some things we can’t explain yet. Doesn’t mean we won’t be able to someday. Hell, look how much the world’s changed in just fifty years.”

He looked back at the screen, and his mood darkened. “This doesn’t look good for you. Your code, plastered all over the walls of our poor dead CTO’s apartment.”

It was my turn to grunt. “I know. But you know I had nothing to do with this.” He did. Didn’t he?

He waved a hand, still not looking at me. There was no threat in it.

“So, you said someone modified it. What did they do?”

“There is literally no greater hell than sifting through someone else’s undocumented code.” I ran a hand down myface. “You’ve gotta give me a few hours. I’ll get DITA working on recovering the data from the Den too. Would go a lot faster if I could get some of POM’s fancy GPUs freed up.”

To my surprise, he didn’t fight me. “I’ll go talk to Tex about it. Don’t leave this room, you got it?” He finally looked at me, and I didn’t like how happy I was to see him grinning.

“I would never do anything to embarrass you, corpo.”

CHAPTER 43

CY

Unsurprisingly, Tex was in his office, despite it being past 10 p.m. I thought I didn't sleep, but sometimes I really did wonder if Tex was a robot.

I was about to knock on his open door when I noticed he wasn’t alone. Seated across from him was a figure I rarely saw on our floor—Levi himself, his tailored black suit a stark contrast to the drab office environment. Tex’s posture was different than usual, slightly less rigid, almost deferential.

I knocked, and they both looked up. Tex straightened immediately.

“Cyanos,” Tex acknowledged. “Come in.”

I walked in but remained standing, acutely aware of Levi’s presence. His eyes tracked me with unsettling precision, as if cataloging every movement.

“We were just discussing your investigation,” Levi said, his voice smooth and cultured. “Tex speaks highly of your progress.”

I glanced at Tex, who gave a slight nod. “Still a lot of unknowns, sir. Mission down in the Den wasn’t as successful as I would’ve liked. Eon wants access to speed up data recovery for what we got.”

Levi leaned forward slightly, his interest visibly piqued. “Ms. Ibarra. Yes, I’ve reviewed her file. Impressive data reconstruction portfolio—before she left university, of course. And an electroteknik. Quite rare indeed.”

Something cold slid down my spine at his mention of Eon’s Flux. Most execs wouldn’t bother with that level of detail about a contractor.

Tex tapped his fingers on his desk. “She’s a known security risk. Do you think it’s worthwhile?”

“Honestly, if our tech guys can’t keep her out, that’s on us,” I replied, addressing Tex but aware of Levi’s unwavering attention.

“A good point,” Levi said before Tex could respond. “I believe we should grant her the access.”

Tex inclined his head in agreement. “I’ll arrange it immediately.”

“However,” Levi continued, standing with fluid grace, “I’d like to speak with Ms. Ibarra personally before proceeding. Is she here now?”

I stiffened. “What about?”