Page 24 of Neon Flux

I’d fuckin’ had it with this loud mouth. I walked up behind him and spun his chair around, drawing out my pistol in the same motion. I felt the barrel tug as it passed through his shield, but the shield worked by inverting kinetic energy. A bullet was fast, and the shield could stop it dead. But something moving slowly, like the gun itself…

The muzzle of the gun sat up against the gamma’s forehead, and I swear the dumb bastard looked like he was about to shit himself.

“Doesn’t look like your shield is doing much good now, is it?”

“Cyanos.” Tex spoke my name softly, but the authority was there.

I lowered the gun, watching the shield glitch as I passed through it again.

“I think that’s enough for today’s briefing.” Tex rose from the end of the table, signaling everyone else to do the same. “Please remember to prioritize your biweekly Vector detox treatments.”

I immediately turned to exit the room when I heard, “Not you, Cyanos.”

Shit.

Everyone else filtered out of the room, including Maddox, who just shook his head at me.

“What have I told you about threatening the gammas?”

I scratched the back of my head absentmindedly. “Sorry, boss.” Tex was the only one who could get an apology like that out of me.

Tex narrowed his eyes. “Cyanos, how long have you worked for me?”

“Nearly ten years.”

“Yes, one of my most senior agents, if not by age. I have seen you come a long way in that time. That gives you some leeway in your behavior—more than most are allowed—but I need you to stop acting like a…” He trailed off.

“A what? Say it.”A dirty gang banger who came from the gutter and still belonged there.

“Like a child.”

That was worse. My Flux rose, like it always did when I was pissed, but I pushed it down before it could surface. Normally I wouldn’t bother, let it show. Not around Tex.

Neither of us said anything more. Tex knew he didn’t have to. I held out a few moments longer before I gave in and lost whatever game of chicken we were playing.

“It won’t happen again, boss.” Tex nodded. “I’ve told you everyone calls me Cy. You should too.”

“Names are important, Cyanos,” he said, waving two fingers at me—my dismissal—as he returned his attention to whatever report he was reviewing on his Vysor.

After I’d satthrough what felt like hours of the damn gammas bringing me their weekly write-ups, I made my escape and headed toward the elevators. Maddox caught me before I could escape.

“Tex has something for us.”

My head throbbed, and I rubbed my eyes. “Can it wait until tomorrow?” I already knew the answer.

“No,” Maddox said.

I let out an exaggerated groan and scratched the back of my head as I followed Maddox to Tex’s office. “Chuck Texcucano,” the holographic nameplate read. It never sat right with me that someone had named this serious, lethal manChuck. I was glad he went by Tex.

At his desk, Tex swiped through screens on his Vysor, visible only to him. With his dark hair pulled back, revealing high widow’s peaks on his dark skin, he scanned the data in front of him. As we entered, he flicked his fingers, and one of the screens popped up on the visualizer on his desk for us to view.

“We received a flagged message on the internal boards,” he explained.

I pushed up my Vysor and rubbed my eyes again as the bright light from the visualizer triggered my headache.

“What’s it say? Got another strike we need to break? Whistleblower?” I asked.

“A leak about a new variant of Vector, said to boost Flux response with less letdown.”