Page 53 of Neon Flux

Taos’ job had gone off without any issues. This had apparently put me back in the good graces of Deacon. I’d ditched my apartment, just in case Cy somehow managed to figure out who I was. I was almost as hard to track down as he was, but he had corp backing, so I couldn’t be too careful. Where better to hide out than with some anti-corp anarchists who were hiding from the same thing?

Apparently, being a terrorist could be really fucking boring sometimes. They’d thrown me a few odd jobs, but with Taos’ payout from the last one, I wasn’t desperate for money. Not yet, at least.

I worked on a worm and a few other programs for a small job they were running that evening, but it had taken me less than an hour, and now I was just trapped in this dank basement. Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone.

Some of the others had also gone to ground and were a constant grating presence—always playing loud music and getting too physical playing some VR game. Right now, they thought they were showing off against some poor virtual fighter.

I’d mostly tried to tuck myself away in a corner, keeping to myself, surfing around cyberspace. No new news on the data center hit, even on the sites not controlled by the corps. Everything was just talking about the destruction done by terrorists and the harm it had caused everyday citizens.

“DITA, any updates?” I asked.

“No one has been by the apartment, and there have been no attempted cyber intrusions. I wiped what I could of your personal server, but I couldn’t physically destroy it, for obvious reasons.”

“Thank you, DITA. Yeah, I’ll have to come by at some point and do that.”

Her avatar’s face lit up. “Wonderful! I miss you, E.”

“DITA, you’re an AI. Seeing me here is no different to you than seeing me at home.”

“I know…” Her avatar blushed. “It’s just nice, having you here. I worry about you when you aren’t under my sensors.”

“No need to worry about me, DITA. I’m just fine. Hey, can you still connect me through to the POM network?”

“Yes, the credentials you have are still valid.”

“Do it.”Idiots. I can’t believe this still works. They need to up their internal IT surveillance.As always, the weakest part of any cybersecurity system was the human element.

“What are you looking for this time?” DITA asked.

Proof that he’s looking for me.“Looking for their internal audit on the data center explosion.”

A few chirps and DITA had me logged in. I flipped through Roger’s recent emails and almost called it quits right there. A whole thread on the background color of some slide deck, and another on the font used. How anything got done was beyond me. I closed out, and my eyes caught on a file on his main dashboard labeledUntil Next Time.

I opened it immediately, and a short text message popped up.

I stared at the words, my pulse hammering in my ears. The text was simple, but I knew better. It was a warning. A promise.

You can’t hide forever.

“What does this mean, E?” DITA’s voice chimed, her digital avatar leaning forward with an expression of exaggerated concern.

I didn’t respond to her. Instead, I immediately typed my response:

Catch me if you can.

I logged out of POM’s network and leaned back in the dingy couch, letting out a slow breath. So he’d figured out I’d sent the memo. Not bad. I mean, that was his job, after all.

It was risky to respond, but it wasn’t like he didn’t already know I was out here. It would’ve been smarter to ignore it—much smarter. But I couldn’t ignore the racing of my heart, the rush of dopamine that came with the chase. I knew I wanted more, no matter what it cost me, and that was the most dangerous thing of all. An addict’s mind, an addict’s habits—and I’d found my new drug.

“Was that wise, E?” DITA asked cautiously.

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But I’m not letting him think he’s got the upper hand.”

“You are playing a dangerous game.”

The only kind worth playing.

The tension in my shoulders wouldn’t ease, no matter how hard I tried to let it go.