Page 18 of Neon Flux

“The ones at your door aren’t mine,” I said, moving toward her. “Black Legion. Rogue unit. And they’re not here to talk.”

“Neither are you,” she replied, remarkably composed.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Smart lady.” I kept my gun trained on her. “How long have you known I was coming?”

I stood close enough to read the lesson plans for the next week, pulled up on her holoscreen. Her desk was surprisingly tidy, considering how she lived. Just a few scattered notes, and dozens of pictures of her with who I assumed were her students.

“I’ve been expecting someone from POM for weeks,” she replied. Her eyes were sharp, intelligent. No fear. “Though I admit, I thought you’d beat the Black Legion here by a larger margin.”

“You know about them? And you’re still just sitting here?”

She sighed. “I think of it a bit like penance for my sins.”

My grip on the gun tightened; I couldn’t stand religious nut jobs. “Stand up. Slowly.”

She complied, still showing no fear. “I assume you’re here about the shield tech. I would prefer to discuss this matter with your superiors directly. I have information they would find valuable.”

“Orders are to bring you in,” I responded. “Black Legion being here complicates things.”

“Lucky me,” she drawled.

My earpiece crackled. “Cy, two coming down your hallway. Thirty seconds.”

I grabbed the professor’s arm. “We’re leaving. Now.”

She didn’t resist. “There’s a service passage through the bathroom. It will take us to the maintenance shaft.”

“Move,” I ordered, pushing her ahead of me.

We reached the bathroom when the apartment door burst open. Shouts, heavy footsteps. I shoved Tanaka toward the narrow maintenance hatch.

“Go. Now.”

She was pretty spry for a seventy-year-old, but her age showed as she stooped to enter the hatch. Slow—way too fucking slow.

“Move your bony ass or I’m going—”

Before I could finish, the bathroom door splintered. A Black Legion operative filled the frame, his rifle raised. Time seemed to slow as my combat reflexes kicked in. My gun was already moving, firing twice—first shot at his throat, second at his face. Both froze in midair, captured in the soft yellow hum of a Kinetic Shield.

Should have known. Every fucker on the street had this now. Of course Black Legion would have gotten their hands on it. Luckily, I knew how all their outdated equipment worked.

I surged forward, ducking down below his blast of gunfire, my shield protecting me just like his. I slammed my hand into the side of his helmet and let my Flux surge. He groaned as the whole thing overloaded.

Blinded and vulnerable, he staggered. I pressed my pistol up under the bottom edge of the helmet and fired. I watched the inside of the darkened faceplate splatter with blood and viscera.

The second soldier came in low, firing a burst that would have caught a normal human square in the chest—but I was already moving, my Vector-enhanced reflexes carrying me into a slide across the floor.

I felt the rage surge—hot, electric, demanding release. I channeled it through my implants, directing a concentrated electromagnetic pulse at his weapon.

The gun exploded in his hands, and I was on him before he could recover, driving my knee into his solar plexus. As he doubled over, I grabbed his head and channeled another electric surge directly through his Flux chip. His body convulsed as the delicate tech in his brainstem fried, and he dropped like a stone.

I grabbed Tanaka and shoved her into the hatch, my shoulder twitching in pain. We slipped through just as more footsteps thundered into the apartment.

“Impressive,” Professor Tanaka commented, as if watching a particularly interesting lecture demonstration. “Your control is impressive for someone handling such volatile Flux.”

“Years of practice,” I replied, scanning the maintenance shaft.

“Status?” Maddox demanded in my ear.