Page 169 of Neon Flux

Contingencies. What a small word.

“What kind of contingencies?” Taos asked, her voice sharp with sudden suspicion.

Deacon smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Just precautions. In case of security complications.”

“What about POM Security?” I asked, Cy’s face flashing unbidden through my mind. “Response time to Magenta is slow, but for a data center breach, they’ll deploy within twenty minutes.”

He glared at me. “We’ve got our protocol perfected. We’ll be out before they ever get close.”

Deacon continued waving and making his grand speeches. Nothing had changed. The youth nodded, faces alight with revolutionary fervor. None of them older than twenty-one. None of them understood what they were really involved in. They saw the shining beacon of hope, never realizing it stood on a pedestal of destruction.

“I need to talk to you,” Taos muttered. She led me to a quiet corner.

“I need your help to—”

“To upload your code.” I finished for her. “I know.”

Her eyes widened fractionally. “What are you talking about?”

The Vector had stripped away my patience for pretense. “The consciousness mapping protocol. That’s what you’ve been trying to get working.”

Taos glanced over her shoulder, ensuring no one else could hear. “How long have you known?”

“Long enough. You need the data center’s processing capacity to test your protocol. To escape your broken body.”

She flinched as if I’d struck her. “It’s more than that. It’s about creating an alternative for everyone trapped by corporations like RejuvaLife—by conditions that make them dependent on systems designed to exploit them. Technology as liberation.”

“That, and finally making Mommy notice you,” I said, the Vector letting me voice thoughts I might otherwise censor. “The forgotten youngest of five, proving she’s worth something after all.”

Color rose in her cheeks. “You don’t understand anything about my family dynamics.”

“I understand enough. Your siblings took their places at RejuvaLife, became good little corporate heirs. But you—you couldn’t compete on their terms, could you? Couldn’t match their business acumen or scientific brilliance. So you decided to burn it all down instead.”

“That’s not—” She stopped herself, recalibrating. “Fine. Yes, I want my family to see what I’ve accomplished without their resources, without their approval. Is that so wrong? To want the people who dismissed you to finally recognize what you’re capable of?”

Oh, that I definitely understood. But me and her weren’t the same. There was something almost childlike in her expression—the wounded pride of someone who’d never had to fight forsurvival, only for validation. Where approval from the system was a want, not a necessity.

“Have you tested it?”

“Once, at the Green data center.”

Another piece slotted into the puzzle. I ignored it.

“But it didn’t work. And you blew the data center to cover your tracks.” I said.

A flash of frustration crossed her face. “I didn’t want to believe it but…the Church—they were convinced Flux was key, that electrotekniks could bridge the gap between the physical and digital.” She looked me up and down. “When I first met you, I didn’t want to believe, but during the Tech job, I saw what you could do. I think I knew then, and was just lying to myself. I was…jealous. I always have been and I put you in some shitty situations. I’m sorry.”

Eon would have forgiven her, would have maybe even embraced her. But I wasn’t her. I was signal and purpose, and her feelings were nothing but a distraction.

“Well, I’m here now. What’s the move.”

She eyed me up and down like she had expected more of a reaction, but continued. “I finally perfected the code. I need to run it tonight, in Magenta.”

I had my doubts, but didn’t voice them. “Doubt Deacon’s thrilled about your little lab project.”

“He doesn’t need to know.” Her fingers traced the crystal pendant at her neck.

Those butterflies came back to my mind. Renard—killed just before the server was destroyed, ripped out his body. His consciousness liberated…so to speak. Was it possible somehow that had been Taos’ doing? But how had it affected him, halfway across the city? There was an answer dancing in that crystal around Taos’ neck, but I couldn’t see it.