Page 24

CY

M addox and I spent the night going over all the data from Renard’s apartment as well as his personal POM profile.

From all of that, we still had nothing. A few hunches, whispers in the breeze, but no solid leads.

I had our signal reconstruction assets working on what little data we had from the night, but they were taking their sweet time—something about too much noise and not enough signal.

Levi wanted an update, even though it had been less than twenty-four hours.

He was not pleased with my excuses.

“I allowed access to Renard’s personal data.

” He looked down at us, larger than life, from the screen in the conference room.

Even though he spoke with a calm, even tone, the silent disappointment and anger weren’t hidden beneath it.

“I think you understand the magnitude of this. What has come from it?”

At this, Maddox and I locked eyes uneasily.

Maddox coughed, but bless the big guy for answering this one.

“Renard’s history was in line with what we would expect from someone in his position.

He mostly frequented the office and places that line up with his provided schedule—business meetings and such. ”

“Mostly?” Levi sounded unamused. “Maddox, as I have said, time is of the essence. Let us not be obtuse. The man is dead—I doubt he will be insulted.”

Maddox grunted, his lips thinning, but continued. “His location history shows that he frequented a club in Magenta called Hellfire. It has ties to the Chrome Kitsune gang.”

He shot me a look at that, but I ignored it. We were looking at Renard’s past, not mine.

“And it’s a sex club, bossman,” I chimed in.

Maddox’s eyes went wide under his Vysor, but Levi just let out a long hum.

“This anomaly could provide us with needed context. I expect you to investigate this and have results by Friday.”

Friday? There was no way. “Boss, I don’t think we will have—”

“You have until Friday, gentlemen. Don’t keep me waiting.” The screen flicked to black as he hung up.

With that Tex strolled out of the conference room, not another word to be said.

I groaned and swiped my hand through my hair. “Friday! These fuckers think we have nothing better to do?”

Maddox extended his hand to help me stand, and I took it.

“We don’t,” Maddox said.

“Sleep would be nice occasionally.”

Maddox only grunted in response to that.

I sat at my desk fuming. Hellfire wouldn’t be open until evening, and I felt like I was wasting my time sitting around waiting.

I probably should’ve gone home and gotten a few hours of sleep, but instead I was just staring at Eon’s profile.

Tex had forbidden me to look for her, but I knew— I just knew —she had the answers we needed.

Her violet eyes raked over me as I looked over the memo that had drawn us to The Blackout, right into her web. It had been posted by some fragged middle manager. That should’ve been a red flag all on its own, but we… I’d been complacent.

“You disobeying orders?” Maddox stuck his head into my cube.

“She’s connected to this. I know it.”

Maddox let out a huff but didn’t stop me. Instead, he pulled up what I was looking at on my terminal on his Vysor. Didn’t take much to convince him, did it?

“You think this guy knows something?” Maddox asked, looking at the profile of the manager who’d posted the memo.

“You see this socket-brain? Guy’s clearly got nothing pulled—I bet she walked all over him.”

A smirk twitched at Maddox’s lips, and I ignored it.

“He’s got beta-level clearance. The guy can’t be completely useless.”

“Nah, look at this—Roger Krynn. Think he’s any relation to Yuki Krynn, the head of the Atlantic Division?” I ran a quick search and let out a long whistle. “Her husband? Shit, this guy is really pulling above his weight class.”

“You talking about Yuki or Eon?” Maddox said, not hiding the jab in his tone.

I ignored him again.

“So what are we gonna do, flag him to info security?” Maddox asked.

“No way. We’re gonna go talk to him, see what he knows.”

Maddox groaned. “He’s a POM employee, Cy. You can’t just intimidate him.”

I shrugged my shoulders innocently. “I said talk, Maddox. Always assuming the worst of me.”

“Just know you, that’s all.”

I swiped our shared screen off and stood. I pulled my gun out of its holster and made a big show of clicking the safety on in front of Maddox. “Look, just talk, okay?”

We found the bastard in a sea of desks on level thirty-five.

I leaned into his cube, and he obviously had music going on his Vysor—he didn’t even notice me.

I took the moment to note the sports paraphernalia tacked to his cube walls, and one holo of him and Yuki Krynn smiling side by side.

He was basic: brown hair, tightly trimmed beard.

Looked like every other middle manager in this place.

Maddox stepped up beside me and blocked enough light that Roger turned, nearly jumping out of his seat when he saw us standing there.

“Gentlemen, I’m sorry—you startled me.” His eyes went immediately to our badges—POM Security, unmissable. I saw sweat bead at his collar and his Adam’s apple bob grotesquely. “What can I help you with today?”

I pulled up a holo of Eon and clipped it to him. “Tell us what you know about this woman.”

His eyes widened behind his Vysor, and he smacked his lips, about to lie. “I’ve never seen her before.”

God, I did not have time for every goddamn fragged yarou in my path putting on this show of bravery. Every damn corpo thought they were so high and mighty—so damn important. Almost made me miss gang life. This sort of shit would’ve been beaten out of him long ago—or he’d already be dead.

“Look, compa, we have orders straight from the bossman himself to gather intel on this woman. You will share everything you know, or I’ll drag you down to the basement myself.”

To my surprise, the man puffed up at that, his eyes narrowing. “I don’t have to put up with this. I knew you security thugs were out of control. As soon as my wife hears about this—”

I went to grab the man by his scrawny throat when Maddox coughed behind me. I sank my rising Flux into the floor and pulled on a smile.

“Your wife, huh? Do you think she’d like to know about the women you’re taking home while she’s on the East Coast?”

It had been a guess, about what Eon had done, but it was right on the money. His collar was soaked now, and his lip twitched. I hated that I was right. I hated that he knew what she tasted like. He was lucky we were at work, or he’d be missing a few teeth already—at the very least.

“I don’t know what—”

“I’m sure Yuri would love to see the holos we have of you.” I moved like I was about to clip him something I didn’t have, but he waved his hands, and I had him.

“Would you keep your voice down?” He half-stood, peering over the walls of his cube. “Conference room MegaBoy—let’s go.”

I gave a mock half-bow as he passed me, then followed. He scurried like the rat he was down the row of cubes.

The conference room was meant for two people, so with the three of us inside, it was a tight squeeze—especially with Maddox, who grunted as he tried to shove himself into the corner as best he could.

“Out with it. We don’t have time for this.”

“Okay, okay…it was a few months ago. I met her at some shitty bar in Blue after a long week. And I…took her home after. I don’t even know her name.”

“You recognized her right away. She must’ve left an impression.”

“You wouldn’t have forgotten her either.” He said it with a shy grin that just about had his brains splattered all over the conference room wall. Maddox grunted again as I twitched, and I pushed the visual of viscera sliding down the glass in a satisfying crawl out of my mind.

“So you took her home. She ask you anything?” Maddox asked.

Roger shook his head. “No…we just…I even took a work call while she was there, but I made sure she couldn’t hear! She just waited for me…”

“So you fucked before and after this call?” He had the audacity to turn red, but nodded his head. “Then what?”

“I fell asleep. She left me her number and was gone in the morning. She didn’t take anything, if that’s what you’re thinking. I always secure everything.” I looked at Maddox as Roger kept talking. “Look, I hadn’t seen my wife in almost three months! They always have her working overseas and—”

I lifted my hand to shut him up. “I’m going to need that number and access to your home terminal.”

“I don’t still have it.” I barely had to glare at him before he gave in. “Okay, I’ll get it. Be right back.”

He left, and I turned to Maddox. “Bet she cloned his credentials after he fell asleep. Dumb fuck probably left his terminal on.” Maddox nodded.

“So what now? That number is probably a dead end.”

Roger came back and handed me a piece of paper with a VysID scrawled across it—and a heart drawn in the corner that had me fuming. I snatched it out of his hand so violently he recoiled, and I pushed past him out of the tight space.

“I think it’s time we set our own honeypot.”