Page 64 of Neon Flux

I’d run into the shop, fist her hair, slam her face down into the counter. It would crack and blood would leak from her forehead as I pressed her into it and moved behind her. I’d run my fingers up those creamy thighs, under her skirt, until I found her pussy, dripping for me. “Needy slut,” I’d whisper in her ear as I unbuckled my pants and she moaned as I pushed—

“What’s the move, Cy?”

I shook my head. “Standard arrest. You get the door, I’ll do declaration, then—”

Maddox’s face hardened, and he reached for his gun. I spun to look back through the window.

She was gone.

“Fuck! I’ll go through, you head around.”

Maddox took off without another word as I busted through the front door.

I vaulted over the counter, the errant customer barely dodging out of my way. The door to the back was jammed, like she’d pulled something down in front of it. I slammed my shoulder into it, over and over.

“Eon Ibarra, you better not fuckin’ run on me again. Nowhere to hide now.”

No reply, but I heard scrambling on the other side of the door. She was still there. I slammed into it again.

“I’ve got your ID flagged. You won’t get anywhere.”

But now I didn’t hear anything.Fuck.I took three steps back and ran at the door again. I felt it give just enough that I could force my head and arm through.

She was scrambling out another window onto the catwalk behind the building. I fired at her. The bullets froze in midair, cased in the yellow aura of her shield. She managed to squeeze out the window but flipped around just long enough to flip me off before disappearing.

“Shit. Maddox,” I spoke into the comm on my headset, “she’s on the run—south side catwalks.”

“This place is a fucking maze, man. I don’t know what—wait, I’ve got visual.”

“Stay in pursuit. I’m following.” I’d finally managed to shove the crates away from the door and scrambled to the window.

I pulled myself through and saw Maddox rounding a corner after her.Shit.Magenta was the perfect place to run—full ofratholes and thousands of different paths of escape. Under the harsh artificial light, her lavender hair flashed as she ducked into a shop.

Maddox and I busted into the noodle bar, which was crammed so tight with patrons I didn’t know how she’d made it to the back without knocking someone over. Maddox wasn’t as graceful. The cheap plastic tables flew as he barreled through them, noodles and soup coating the floors and walls.

Indignant groans and curses flew from the patrons of the shop, but I didn’t slow. I launched myself over the counter, pushing the clerk aside and slamming into the door of the kitchen as I made the hard turn.

“Hey, hey hey hey!” the chef yelled at her as she pulled a rack of bowls down between us and kept running. I slipped on the dishware but scrambled after her. She ducked out a “window” that led to another walkway. I shoved myself through while Maddox just busted through the locked door beside it like it was nothing.

She pulled open a door and the sound of a deep bass beat poured out as she disappeared into it.

I followed, ripping the door to the club open. “Shit.” There were bodies everywhere. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the day, the club was packed. When you never see the sun, night and day don’t matter.

“I’ll go left, you go right,” Maddox said over comms.

I didn’t hesitate. I pushed through the crowd, a few errant hands trying to pull me in to dance. I couldn’t see shit. I sent out a wave of Flux, and the flashing neon lights overhead stopped pulsing, but there was still too much going on. That’s when I felt it—a responding echo of Flux. I locked in on that signal to see a head of lavender hair pushing along the back wall.

“West side, headed toward you. Back wall,” I commed Maddox.

“Got it—fuck—”

She lit up, sparks flying up her arms as Maddox approached her, gun out. The crowd shifted around her nervously. If she was willing to use her Flux, she was desperate and didn’t have a way out. Good.

“Push her toward the crowd,” I said.

“Too many civilians, not a good move.”

“I know, dumbass. That’s the point—she won’t risk hurting them.”