Page 41

EON

T he hallway smelled clean, which was a rarity in Neo Stellaris.

I stood outside Maddox’s apartment door, my fingers flexing at my sides, trying to shake the nerves like they were something I could flick off.

Stupid. I’d been in worse places, with worse people, and I’d survived.

Cy and Maddox weren’t about to slit my throat and dump me in the canal.

Not yet, at least. They still needed me.

I exhaled and knocked twice—firm, but not desperate. Footsteps, a pause, then the door slid open. Cy answered, leaning against the frame like he had all the time in the world to be unimpressed with me.

“You get lost on the way?” he drawled, eyes flicking down like he expected me to have already run off.

I folded my arms. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

“Would’ve saved me the massive headache.”

I didn’t dignify that with a response, just shouldered past him into the apartment.

It was tidy, but felt more like a home than Cy’s place had.

Maddox clearly spent time here—random half-finished projects were scattered across various surfaces, and the overstuffed furniture looked well used.

Schematics for different robotics projects hung on the walls.

Maddox was at the table, screens and schematics spread out in front of him, his eyes flicking up just long enough to acknowledge me before returning to whatever he was working on.

No hello. No bullshit small talk. Fine by me.

Cy shut the door behind me, locking me in with them. I squared my shoulders, forcing myself to act like I belonged there, even if every instinct screamed otherwise.

Cy dropped onto the worn-out couch, a rifle laid across his lap.

He picked up a rag and started wiping it down—slow and methodical—like he wasn’t just cleaning a weapon, like he was making a point.

Metal clicked as he checked the chamber, rolling his shoulders in a way that made the whole thing seem casual.

It wasn’t. He wanted me to see it. Wanted me to know exactly whose turf I was on.

I ground my teeth, refusing to react. The last thing I was going to do was let Cy think he was getting under my skin. He wasn’t—even if I couldn’t take my eyes off the metal gleaming in his hands.

“You always do this?” I asked, arms crossed. “Or is the performance just for me?”

Cy barely glanced up. “Gotta make sure she’s ready.” He ran a hand down the rifle’s barrel with something that almost looked like reverence. “Unlike some people, I don’t enjoy walking into a job unprepared.”

Fuck him. Blood pooling on the server room floor, dead kids beneath smoking stacks. No matter how good he felt, he was a monster. I couldn’t forget that.

I turned to Maddox, who was ignoring the whole thing. He was tinkering with a device the size of a suitcase. I leaned around his shoulder for a better look.

“Is that an RX-578? Those are pretty hard to get in such good condition.”

“Yeah, Maddox ‘commandeered’ this one from a POM disposal unit,” Cy interjected from the couch as he stood and headed for the kitchen.

Maddox’s dark cheeks flushed a lovely shade of auburn, and it was honestly adorable.

I saw why Mercy had such a crush. “Stealing from the corporation? And I thought you were the one on the straight and narrow.” I winked at him, and he grunted, crossing his arms. He turned away, so I walked around to his other side to see the robot on his bench.

“Damn, did you modify the IMU? That’s sensitive work. Did it help with the balance issues?” I saw his head barely incline toward me, and I knew I had him close to cracking.

“Don’t get him started. He won’t shut up about it all night if you do,” Cy said, returning with a beer can tucked under his arm and a to-go container of noodles in hand. He shoved them into his mouth with chopsticks like a starving urchin.

“That’s rich coming from the master of never shutting the fuck up.” I leaned a little closer to Maddox and gave him a soft smile.

He held that stern face for a few seconds longer, then reached out and flipped on the bot. It rose on its four canine-like legs. He gave it a hard shove, and it recovered quickly.

“Nice!”

He couldn’t hide the pleased grin. Good. One step forward.

“We using this for the Kitsune job?”

“Told you—there is no—we—” Cy grumbled around a mouthful of noodles.

Maddox shook his head and pulled out a small reinforced case. He flipped it open with a magnetic lever, revealing a sleek chrome device. Completely seamless. Whatever it was, it looked expensive.

“This,” Maddox finally said, lifting it up, “is what gets us into their system.”

I stepped closer, eyeing the device. “Looks fancy. POM tech?”

Maddox nodded. “Prototype. Straight from R&D. Hooks into a network’s internal defenses, mimics system credentials, and feeds back false data.” He set it down carefully.

“Sounds too good to be true.”

He grunted. “Almost. Needs to be within fifty feet to work, and the Den has a Faraday cage around the whole thing—no wireless signals in or out. We’ll have to get it inside.”

“I’m assuming they don’t like letting in tech they don’t recognize?” I asked.

“Ding ding ding. You really are a genius.” Cy’s voice was dripping with sarcasm as he circled around me. I ignored him.

The device was small—really no larger than a tube of lip gloss—and perfectly sealed. I took it from Maddox and rolled it between my fingers.

“DITA?”

She chimed in my ear, “Quite impressive anti-encryption software, but it will still need guidance to find the right data.”

I knew what we had to do.

“I’m going in with you,” I said.

“Like hell you are. If I can’t bring Maddox, I’m definitely not bringing you.” Cy crossed his arms.

“You can’t bring Maddox?”

Cy shook his head. “Kitsune are already jumpy with a corpo sniffing around, let alone two.”

“I thought you were one of them?”

Finally, Cy looked surprised. “How do you figure that?”

I grabbed his face and pulsed my Flux just enough. The circuits beneath his skin glowed.

“This isn’t legal work. I used to see similar mods back at Hellfire. A lot of the Kitsune had outdated tech like this. Not this extensive, though. When I first saw them, I thought they were just those Flux tattoos that were trendy a few years back. But this…”

He shook me off but didn’t contradict me. “I’m shimin now. Got a few contacts, but that might just get us in the door, nothing more. No special treatment. Only I can get in.”

“Just tell them I’m a whore who gets off on a little excitement. They’ll ignore me.”

“Is that not what you are?” Cy asked innocently.

My Flux spiked—and he knew it, grinning. But that little device was still in my hand, and I wanted to play.

“You’ll bring me in, and I’ll manage the device.”

“Don’t need you. I can handle it.”

“Oh, so you can run a search protocol and monitor the data upload all while keeping them from getting suspicious? By yourself?”

He shifted, and Maddox let out a grunt. “Yeah, that’s my job,” Cy said.

“So you’ll risk getting the data when you could just take me with you? While you’re charming them with your winning personality, I’ll be robbing them blind.”

“It is a better plan,” Maddox chimed in.

“Whose side are you on, partner?” Cy said, pained.

“Hers.”

“She complements your robot once and I’m yesterday’s soy-meat.”

“I can’t have eyes on you in there. No signals in or out. I don’t like it,” Maddox replied.

“So it’s settled.” I smiled. “I’ll get to work on the search program right away.”

“Hold it, doll. We still haven’t solved how we’re getting this little gem inside.”

“I’ll take it in. No problem.”

“And where exactly do you—” His eyes went wide, then he laughed. “No fucking way.” He laughed again. “Never thought I’d be jealous of a piece of tech.”