Page 12

EON

A few hours passed in silence. No one came into the clinic, luckily. At one point, NSPD passed by, but they apparently weren’t bored enough to bother us today.

I felt my body relax when the Smiths came out of the back room.

Tommy leaned against his mom, drowsy and a bit disoriented, a bandage on the back of his neck.

My hand reflexively went to the scar on the back of mine.

The procedure wasn’t easy, but I could see the relief on his face.

His mother had a real bandage on her neck now and was cleaned up. She was shaking Dev’s hand.

Dev had her sign a few things, and as he did, I moved closer to Tommy. His face was still sullen, riddled with guilt as his eyes lingered on his mom’s bandage.

I lowered my voice. “You know, before I got my chip, I hurt my mom too. I felt so guilty about it, but once I got my chip, I could contain it.”

He looked at me with big, round eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. You were very brave today. I’m proud of you.” I pulled a thumb drive out of my pocket and handed it to him. “Some shows for your recovery. Tell your mom it’s doctor’s orders—as many vids as you want for the next two days.”

His eyes lit up. “Thanks!” He smiled his first genuine smile, and my heart ached. Big softie.

“Thank you so much, Doctor. I promise I’ll get you the next payment as soon as I can,” Ms. Smith said behind me.

“I know you will. I’m just happy I could help.

” Dev shot me an apologetic look. Bigger softie.

This is why we were always behind on bills.

I shook my head but wasn’t mad. This was why Dev kept this rundown clinic—to actually help people, even if it meant he ate way more instant noodles than was healthy.

He walked them out the door, then turned back to me. “Got a few things to clean up. You’ll lock up for me?”

“Of course, Dev.” I patted his shoulder as he walked by, and he hit me with a sad smile. “What is it?”

“He was too young. Barely ten years old. That Flux chip is going to stunt his growth.”

I gave Dev’s arm a squeeze. “You did the right thing. You saw how much he was already manifesting. He might’ve hurt someone again, or worse—”

Dev’s eyes went hard, and I didn’t have to say it.

Kids with Flux who didn’t get chipped died.

No one had ever made it past sixteen. There had been a panic when it had first started happening around 2055, as more and more of the already dwindling population burned out.

The entire world had come together to find a solution, often lauded as humanity’s greatest moment of cooperation—behind integrating Stellarium power worldwide.

It was rumored the first-gen implants had come from some secret military tech designed to regulate human hormones in battle.

Luckily, a few years later, microfluidic hormone control had been developed, and the Flux chip became standard.

“Better stunted than dead, I suppose.” He flattened his lips, not comforted.

“Why do you think he manifested so early?”

He shrugged. “Early onset puberty. Likely environmental factors. Too far along for me to reverse since his Flux already emerged. Didn’t have a choice.”

“Like I said, you did the best you could.”

He let out a long sigh. “Is it true what you told the kid? You hurt your mom with your Flux before you got chipped?”

The guilt I felt even to this day rose with the memory. I’d been fourteen and terribly bullied at my ramshackle Magenta school. An outlander girl whose breasts had developed at twelve. I was an easy target. A group of boys had harassed me for weeks, but I’d held it all in until I’d gotten home.

I don’t remember what Mom did, but I lashed out, and the next thing I knew she was on the floor, convulsing as electricity crashed through her system. I’d thought she was dead.

She’d been all right, but I hadn’t. She’d held me tight as I sobbed and murmured, “Siempre te querré, pase lo que pase.”

After that, I never let it get out of control again.

I’d gotten chipped, and I’d vowed to keep it inside.

I only ever let it out to play with my electronics around the apartment, and only when Mom wasn’t home.

I’d learned to read their circuits. I didn’t make friends, so the hidden language I shared with them was my company.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a unique story.”

Dev shook his head. “No, especially not in places like this with people packed in and hormones always running wild.”

He sighed again and tapped my shoulder, walking to the back room without another word.

I grabbed the keys from under the counter and walked to the door to lock up. I pressed the door into the frame so the lock would catch, when a flash outside caught my gaze. A lit-up Vysor sat on a face that roiled my stomach. He pushed his way inside the clinic before I could stop him.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite girl.” Rook had his platinum hair slicked back on the top of his head, a ragged pink scar that ran from his cheekbone to chin set off against his pale skin.

It made the smile he wore crooked, menacing.

Before I could stop myself, I took a reflexive step back. Retreating.

He closed the door behind him. “Long time no see, E.”

I kept walking backward, trying to keep my hands from shaking. He kept coming toward me until my back hit the counter behind me. I tried to calm the erratic beating of my heart, hoping to breathe through the surge of adrenaline that was trying to take over my body.

“What do you want?” I hadn’t been able to keep the waver out of my voice, and he knew it.

“Can’t a guy just stop by to see a gorgeous lady?”

“Got plenty of those around. Don’t need me.”

He chuckled. “That I do. Actually, good old Dr. Dev hasn’t paid his monthly, and I’m here to collect. If he wants me to keep sending my girls’ brats to him, I need my kickback.”

Damn it, Dev. A fucking genius Modder, but he’d lose his head if it wasn’t screwed onto his shoulders.

“I’ll take care of it.” I circled the counter, happy to have something between me and Rook. I fumbled with the safe that stored our supply of hardcreds when I heard Rook mumbling.

“Actually heard some rumors about your old pal Taos’ crew. Like they’re getting up to something big. You know anything about that?”

My throat went dry. Did everyone know about this job? Deacon’s loud mouth. He’d loved being labeled a folk hero, getting praise for sticking it to the corps. If he wasn’t more careful, they were all going to disappear under black bags.

“I haven’t heard anything. Try to stay away from that kind of work.” I walked back around the counter to hand him the wad of creds.

“Uh-huh.” His eyes raked me up and down, and he didn’t move to take the money.

“Actually,” Rook drawled, wrapping a hand around my arm, “creds flow has been pretty good for me recently. If the Doc’s hard up, you and I could come to a different arrangement.”

He’d fucked me more times than I could count.

He didn’t actually want this. He was just doing this to fuck with me—to remind me who held the power.

And it was working. As he leaned in, the memories I’d fought to bury from those months in his club surged up again.

Flashes of neon lights and dirty VIP rooms. Vector held out, then snatched away.

Hands ripping me apart. My mouth choking on Rook’s cock as he shoved it down my throat.

“Come on, for old time’s sake. We could make it a party. I even brought goodies—your favorite.” He flashed a cartridge filled with fluorescent green liquid that lit something inside my blood.

“I don’t do that anymore.” I tried to shove him off.

“What? Vector or sucking dick? You used to be so much fun, E. What happened?”

I got clean. I got away. But his hand was still wrapped around my arm like he owned me, and I couldn’t do a damn thing. Coward. I ground my teeth and let those memories fuel an anger that swelled in my gut. I let just a sliver of the electricity in my blood shock him, and his grip loosened.

“Get the hell off me, Rook.” I shoved him, and his smile dropped into something ugly.

“Come on, once a whore, always a whore. You telling me you never work anymore?” He sneered.

I thought of my upcoming job, what I had to do, and all the anger drained out of me. I was just pretending anything had changed—that I’d ever really escaped. He saw my resolve falter and moved in again, grinning like he’d already won.

“Is there a problem here?” Dev had come out of the back room.

“Oh, just reminiscing about old times, when Eon used to bend over for any trick with two hardcreds to rub together.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I hated that more than I hated him. Hated how weak he made me.

Dev moved between us. “Get the fuck out of my clinic.”

“What? You getting kickbacks from the cock-sucker now, Dev? Didn’t think she was your type. Guess lips are all the same, no matter who they’re on.” Rook shrugged.

“Get the fuck out while you can still walk.” I’d never seen Dev so serious.

“Come on, we’re just joking around. You owe me creds anyway.”

“I don’t owe you a goddamn thing.” Dev reached under the counter and pulled out a gun I’d never seen before, aiming it at Rook’s head. “Get out.”

Rook’s smile only widened. “I’ve got a shield. That won’t do shit.”

“Ever tested it?” I’d finally found my voice again.

The grin vanished. His face shifted to that ugly place all men go when they feel rejected by someone they think beneath them. He turned and spat on the floor.

“That’s what I get for dealing with whores and fags.”

Dev didn’t lower the gun, and Rook backed a step away.

His frown deepened before something cruel sparked in his eyes. “Whatever. I was going to offer you my condolences, but—”

“Condolences for what?” I shouldn’t have let him bait me. But the bottom had dropped out of my stomach.

His sneer stretched wide. He flicked the side of his Vysor, and an article popped up on mine.

Beloved professor found dead in Blue District home of suicide.

Professor Tanaka’s smiling eyes stared back at me from the obituary photo. The blood drained from my head, and Dev grabbed me just below the elbow.

She would’ve never gone out like that. I knew who had really done this.

“My condolences, Eon,” Rook said. Then he turned and left the store, slamming the door so hard a new crack split across the glass and a small piece fell, shattering on the floor.

“You okay, E? What did he send you?” Dev asked, squeezing my shoulder.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Where did you get that gun, Dev?”

“What, you’re the only one around here who gets to have a dark and shadowy past?” He wiggled his eyebrows, trying to get me to smile.

It didn’t work.

My hands were still shaking, but I shoved everything down. Work. I needed to work. Anything to keep my mind busy as my pinky twitched again, my mind on that fluorescent vial.

“Hey,” I said, nudging him. “I need you to run an optimization on my Flux chip.”

He blinked, but went along with the subject change. “What for?”

“I need to be able to do a microwipe.”

“How micro are we talking here?” he asked.

“Single circuit level.”

He let out a long yeeiisshhh between his teeth. But then his eyes lit up, and that crooked smile returned. “Let’s get to work, then.”