Page 144 of Neon Flux

“Don’t I know it? Well, you know I live close. Why don’t you walk me home?” He grinned, leaning in close. Too close.

“Goodnight, Cy. I’ll see you bright and early for the report, okay?”

I didn’t like the look on his face. Disappointment, but not the kind I was used to. Not like some client I’d turned down at the club. This was different. Something softer. Something sharper. It cut straight through me.

I left without another word, the weight of the cartridge in my pocket suddenly immense.

I tooka RoboTaxi two blocks away from RejuvaLife Pharmaceuticals and ran the rest. DITA pinged me as I neared, feeding me real-time security data. POM’s new defenses were no joke—drones, heat sensors, high-frequency scanners that could detect an elevated heart rate. If Taos and the others were hiding, they wouldn’t last. Luckily, DITA had swiped a few weaknesses while I’d been working for POM.

A message popped up.

Taos: Still locked in. Two guards just passed. We got 10, maybe 15 mins before they sweep again.

I crouched behind a low wall across from the facility. Of course it was raining. I pulled my hood up, slapped on an anti-recognition mask, and peeked over the barricade. The exterior was smooth, sterile white. A wire fence surrounded the entire building.

“DITA, anything from the public cameras? Entry points?”

“Security booth on the west side. Inside the fence parameter. Two guards at the entry gate.”

“Suggestions on how to get in?”

“Distraction? The transformer on the south side could be overloaded.”

Overloaded with Flux. The cartridge in my pocket became a singularity—its gravity inescapable.

I crept around the building to the south side, where thick cables fed into the main transformer. Rain slicked the pavement, my boots soaking in carbon-infused puddles. I pressed my back against the cold wall, eyes fixed on the humming transformer. The Flux in my veins should’ve been enough. I should’ve been able to reach out, pull from the charged air, from the constant thrum of energy all around me. But when I tried—

Barely a spark.

I shook my hand and tried again. My Flux snaked down into the cables, but it was drowned by the electricity already there. This thing powered the whole facility. I’d need a level of voltage I hadn’t accessed since—

But this wasn’t like the Den. When Cy had been standing too damn close, his presence threading into mine, something in me responding to him without my permission—my Flux resonating to a power level I hadn’t known was possible. No, now it was just me, and that wasn’t enough. I was alone.

My fingers curled around the Vector cartridge in my pocket.

“Eon,” DITA’s voice came softly through my earpiece. “You don’t need it.”

I exhaled sharply. “Idoneed it.”

“There has to be another way. You’ve worked so hard.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “No other way that’ll work fast enough. I can’t let Taos die in there. Not because of me.” I’d already caused enough harm in this world.

DITA hesitated, and I could almost hear the sadness in her silence. If AIs could feel sadness. But I’d made her—so maybe what I heard was the part of me that knew, no matter how hard I worked, no matter what problem or job I threw myself into, no matter how much I fought with Cy and how good it felt—the Vector would always win.

I’d always come back to it. Because it felt so damn good. Because I needed it. The chemicals inside my brain needed it. And no matter how long it had been, how good I had been, the craving was always there. Inescapable. A force beyond my human ability to resist—especially not a human as cowardly as me.

I grabbed the cartridge from my pocket and rolled down the shoulder of my jacket. I pressed it to my deltoid, and the microneedles released.

The burn hit first—acrid, electric. And then—

Then the world opened.

The hum of the transformer became a symphony. Every charge, every pulse—an extension of myself. My skin tingled. My body thrummed. The air itself felt alive, buzzing against my fingertips. My vision swam with the neon lights of the city, and for one glorious moment, I was perfect. I was powerful.

I reached out. Flux jumped from my palm to the transformer like a live wire snapping free, a brilliant arc of violet light cutting through the dark. Sparks spat in every direction.

My Flux—mypower—snaked up the cables into the transformer, and I basked in the light as it exploded.