Page 175 of Neon Flux

“This was never about data extraction, was it? You knew this place was unstable.”

Taos glanced at Deacon, her disbelief mirrored in her expression. My blood ran cold as realization dawned.

“You knew,” I whispered. “You fucking knew.”

“Sometimes you have to destroy to rebuild,” Deacon said, his voice tight. “POM has had its boot on Magenta’s throat for decades. These people are slaves, E. Just cogs in the capitalist machine, driving us all to destruction. They can’t see the bigger picture.”

“And neither do you, apparently,” I spat. “Fifty thousand people, Deacon. Families. Children. For what? To make a point?”

“For change,” he said. “Real change requires sacrifice.”

“Not their sacrifice. Not without choice. That’s not sacrifice, its mass murder.” I turned back to the terminal, fingers flying as I tried to access the regulatory protocols. “I won’t let you do this.”

Deacon’s hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me away from the controls. “It’s not your call.”

I let my Flux rise, electricity snaking between my fingers. “Let. Go.”

His eyes widened as the current passed through him—not enough to hurt, just enough to make his muscles spasm. I couldn’t call more than that after my fight with Cy. He released me with a curse.

“We believe in this cause,” he spat. “Don’t know why you don’t, after what happened to your mother—”

“My mother was hurt by violence born of desperation,” I shot back. “This? This is just more of the same. Different rhetoric, same result. People die.”

I turned back to the terminal, fighting to override the sequence Taos had initiated. The Stellarium pressure was already climbing, the pipes around us pulsing faster, brighter.

“Make her stop,” Deacon barked.

“This isn’t right,” Taos said—not to me. “Deacon, that’s too many people…”

“Don’t pussy out on me now, Taos. I thought we were on the same page.”

She shook her head. “We don’t have to overload it. We can broadcast POM’s suppressed experimentation files without overtaxing the system.”

Deacon let out a disappointed tsk. My fingers froze over the keys. “What?”

“It’s all there,” she insisted. “Medical experiments. Secret labs using tekniks as test subjects. They’re turning them into weapons, E. Or worse.”

The image of Cy flashed through my mind. A prototype—him, and every Flux-capable member of POM Security. Anyone with skill that could be commoditized.

“I’ll…the code can wait. It’s too high a price,” she said, her voice quaking as the device behind her ear flashed erratically. There wouldn’t be more time—not for her. She was good, deep down.

“Taos…” I pulled my hands away from the terminal and reached for her.

That moment of hesitation cost us everything.

The chamber’s massive doors slid open with a hydraulic hiss. Security troops poured in, their featureless masks reflecting the pulsing magenta light. Elite forces, their armor incorporating the same Flux-channeling tech I’d seen at the RejuvaLife raid.

Deacon and his people opened fire immediately. Bullets ricocheted harmlessly off Kinetic Shields, yellow light flashing with each impact. A few of the new recruits had Flux, but they weren’t trained. They weren’t weapons.

“Run!” I shouted to Taos, grabbing her arm—but there was nowhere to go. The chamber had one exit, now blocked by at least a dozen assets.

I pushed her behind me, channeling my Flux into a defensive shield. Violet electricity crackled in a dome around us as POM Security forces advanced. I couldn’t hold them off for long. My whole body shook as the Vector drained from my system. I fumbled in my pocket for another dose, but found it was gone—lost somewhere between here and the start of this whole doomed mess.

Deacon went down first, a precision burst of flames striking his shoulder, straight through his shield. The others fell in quick succession, their weapons proving useless against POM’s elite.

“Keep working,” I hissed to Taos. “If we’re going down, at least get the data out.”

She nodded, slipping back to the terminal under the cover of my faltering shield. The security forces encircled us, methodically tightening their formation.