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“ W hat a fucking waste of time,” I groused at Maddox as we sat at a table in the back of The Blackout, a shitty dive. I’d talked with a few of my local contacts who were working the scene, and none of them had heard anything about a new variant.

One small-time dealer had tried to pull one on me, but I’d sniffed him out immediately. Feeling generous tonight, I’d let him out of the bar, missing only a few teeth instead of his life.

Maddox followed me with his judgmental stare as I shook out my hand, wiping the kid’s blood off my glove. “Was that necessary?”

“We have a reputation to uphold.” I pulled a pair of Vector cartridges out of my pocket, holding one out to Maddox. He shook his head.

“We aren’t in uniform. No one knows we’re POM Security. That’s why it’s called a covert mission,” Maddox said.

I pulled down my collar and pressed the cartridge to my chest, leaning back to let it work.

“Thanks, Dad.”

I ran my hand through my hair, pushing the bright blue strands out of my face.

I looked at Maddox, and up close I could see how thick his Vysor was.

Prescription for his eyes. Almost everyone just got surgery nowadays, but Maddox couldn’t.

No doctor would operate on them. Stellarium mutations didn’t just give people Flux—sometimes it gave us other little bonuses too.

I got these gorgeous blue strands, and Maddox got eyes that glowed like fucking headlights.

Maddox huffed and refused the Vector I held out again. “I get enough of that in the field.”

“Suit yourself.” I injected it too.

I’d asked him once what he felt like when he did Vector, his Air Flux incomprehensible to me. He’d been high when I asked, so all he’d said was, “Freedom.” Poetic yarou .

He tried to change the subject.

“Been thinking about getting one of those optical implants. Doc said since it’s a full replacement, they can do it with my eyes.”

“You’d let those quacks put some untested tech into your body?” I didn’t hide the disdain in my voice.

Maddox frowned. “I’d hardly call the best researchers in the world quacks .”

I huffed, hiding the shiver that ran down my spine at the thought. “It’s a miracle you made it out of the NSPD without them chopping off one of your limbs as it is, calling it combat enhancement.”

I didn’t look at Maddox, but I felt his gaze rake down my body to where he knew my Flux implants hummed beneath my skin.

“Right, forgot how you feel about body mods. You don’t even have the combat chip implanted, do you? I don’t know how you do it. The hormone regulator is all that keeps me calm sometimes.” He swept his gaze over me again. “Wait a minute, don’t you have piercings?”

I lolled my tongue out of my mouth so my stud was visible. Corporate had made me take out the ones in my face, but I still had all the ones they couldn’t see. “You know I do, but these are from when I was young and still trying to prove something. I’m more mature now.”

He laughed at that, and the conversation dropped just in time for me to lean back and let the drugs play.

The lights melded into an ecstatic tapestry as the Vector took effect.

The bar’s resounding bass thrummed along with the Flux in my blood.

I felt my awareness expand, every single device singing a song that resonated with me.

Each electron created its own symphony, harmonizing or clashing with its neighbor until the cacophony was overwhelming.

And I reveled in the chaos.

I let myself sink into all those mismatched frequencies, when I felt something different.

A signal that didn’t feel discordant, but perfectly synced with my own.

I tried to focus on it, locate it, but there was too much noise—and I’d never been one for precise action.

My Flux had always been about overwhelming power.

But something in that signal nagged at me, until I felt Maddox stiffen next to me and my reflexes kicked in, my hand on my weapon.

Then I saw what had unnerved him. A chick with huge tits walked in, all curves, not very many of them covered. She had fluffy hair that framed a cute face. She was just Maddox’s type, and I had no doubt my partner was half-cocked already.

I relaxed and leaned back.

“I’m gonna buy her a drink,” Maddox said, without so much as a look back at me.

“And what, leave me here all by my lonesome?” I asked.

Maddox turned back, and even through his darkened Vysor, I could see the eye roll. He waved his hand toward the entrance, and my eyes followed.

Another woman had come through. Now we were talking.

She was tall, probably almost as tall as me, and her legs and ass were all muscle. She had her own pair of excellent tits, but they were proportional to her body—and I knew they’d be firm in my hands, unlike the floppy melons of the first girl.

She was as preppy as they came, but I could live with that, because her face was a fucking knockout. Framed by chestnut brown hair, with full pink lips that I was already imagining exactly what they could do.

She stood out like a sore thumb, and it wasn’t just her clothes. Everything about her screamed rich girl—probably pissed at her daddy and here for a little slum fun. Well, I could provide that. Probably a huge cock tease, used to men bending over backward for her.

Normally I wouldn’t bother, but I was bored and felt like fucking something up tonight. Especially something that looked that good.

The tall girl wrapped her arm around the curvy girl and steered her toward the bar. The curvy one might’ve been a working girl, but she wasn’t working tonight. At least not for cash. The way they looked and were dressed, I was sure they’d be elbow-deep in dick in no time.

Already, I saw men at the bar shifting, deciding their best move.

Maybe tonight wouldn’t be a total bust after all.