Page 19 of Neon Flux

“Moving to extraction point B,” I answered, the pain in my implants making my voice tight.

The maintenance shaft was narrow and dark. We descended quickly, following the dim emergency lighting. Tanaka moved, but she was still too fucking slow, limping. I was about to throw her over my shoulder when—

“You know why POM wanted the shield tech kept proprietary?” she asked, her eyes hard. “It’s not about money. It’s about control. The shields could protect people—”

“Save the anarchist propaganda,” I cut her off. “I just want to get us out of here.”

We emerged into a wider service corridor. My Vysor mapped our route to the extraction point.

“They’re following,” Maddox warned. “I’ve got thermal signatures in the shaft behind you.”

“How many?”

“Two. The third is circling around to cut you off.”

Shit.I glanced at Tanaka. I wasn’t about to die over this old bag.

A crash came from behind us. They were getting closer.

“This way,” I urged, pulling her down a side passage. The extraction point was just ahead. But so was the third operative, according to Maddox. She was still too slow. I grabbed her around her waist, and she flinched. My gloved hand came back covered in blood. She’d been hit and hadn’t told me.

“You old bitch! You stole the shields, and you weren’t even using one?”

She slumped against the concrete of the corridor, sliding down slowly. “Like I said, penance.”

The two operatives were almost on us. I looked at Tanaka, bleeding out slowly. I didn’t have a MedKit and wouldn’t have time anyway. No time to get what she knew. Probably couldn’t fight off three trained operatives without the advantage of surprise, with her weighing me down. And I couldn’t risk them taking her alive.

The choice was simple.

“Nothing personal, Professor,” I said, pressing my gun against her temple. “But you’re not theirs to take.”

Her eyes met mine. No fear, only calm acceptance. “Never thought I’d meet two like you.”

I pulled the trigger.

As her body crumpled, I spun toward the doorway, channeling my Flux into a concentrated blast. The energy surged from my fingertips in blue-white arcs, my shoulder burning as the implant there heated. The electrical charge caught the remaining operative square in the chest, shorting his shield and stopping his heart in one brutal surge.

“Cy!” Maddox’s voice was urgent in my ear. “What’s happening?”

“Target eliminated,” I replied, already moving toward the maintenance shaft. “Three Black Legion down. Two in pursuit.”

“Get to extraction point B. I’ll meet you there.”

I slipped out of the narrow tunnel, leaving Tanaka’s body behind.

The pain in my shoulder had settled back to its familiar dull throb.

Maddox had rolledup with perfect timing and got us away without having to deal with the final two operatives. The job was over for all of us, anyway. Target terminated.

The transport was auto-driving us back to HQ. Maddox hunched over his tablet, fingers moving across the holographic keyboard with obsessive precision. He'd been typing for twenty minutes straight—the same incident report that should have taken five.

I stretched out across the opposite bench, feet propped up, taking another hit of my VaPurr. The Vector cartridge smoothed out all the electromagnetic static that never seemed to stop.

“You know you're gonna wear out that keyboard if you keep retyping the same paragraph,” I said, watching him through the smoke.

“Just want to get the details right.” His voice was tight, controlled.

“Details.” I grinned. “What details? The part where Tanaka’s dumb ass didn’t have a shield, or the part where I put her down before Black Legion could grab her?”