CHAPTER 56
Evren
The Perfect Girl - Mareux
Crimson Velocity's warehouse is vast, dimly lit, and built for function rather than comfort.
Shipping containers, stacked crates, and towering metal shelves form narrow aisles leading to reinforced offices and secure holding rooms.
I've gang members posted at every entrance while others move merchandise between loading bays and storage areas.
This is where my gang negotiates its biggest deals, stores valuable cargo, and brings in the people who owe us credits.
Two days ago, I came back to Crimson's garage with the suit stuffed into some tiny fucking bag. They told me I just had to open it, and the clothes would unfold on their own, perfectly wrinkle-free.
I wonder how the fuck that thing even works. Shouldn't the clothes come out all balled up instead of perfectly wrinkle-free?
Upper Layers rich-people bullshit.
Riven paid for it, of course she did. I ain't paying for a suit I'll wear once.
That thing cost more than my adrenal booster, and that already costs me fifteen thousand credits.
When I almost punched the tailor—again—he told me the price was because of the organic materials. The best quality I could ever imagine.
No shit, man.
Given the price she paid, it better be worth it.
Riven scolded me like a fucking child and flicked my implant, trying to calm me down.
It didn't.
I threw her over my shoulder and stalked out, determined to spank her ass.
She bit my neck so hard I've still got the fucking teeth marks.
I can't wait for tonight’s ball so I can give her parents a fucking heart attack—or better yet, rip their hearts out while I'm fucking their daughter.
That's a good plan.
A perfect one.
And, of course, hack the government network.
Ren contacted a hacker in the Deadzone to get some kind of device you just have to plug in near an office.
That thing hacks everything by injecting a virus so powerful it detects a weakness, spreads through the entire system to weaken the defenses, then forces it to reboot.
During the window between the virus exploiting the weakness and the reboot, we can access the files about her brother and take everything.
The only problem is that Ren will have to be as fast as he is on his bike during a fucking race.
We'll have one minute at most to find what we're looking for before the system reboots.
The government's software is too advanced.
I've got to close the damn deal with that hacker in the Grid—the black market of Kairo-9.
Neo and Varek followed me at the warehouse to get weapons in case.
Not that I need them or the weapons, let’s say it’s just an addition for that hacker to not try anything stupid.
The Grid is a place where anything can happen. You can get killed and end up with your mods—or parts of your body—sold for credits just as easily as you can walk into an illegal clinic and leave with new implants.
Most of the people who go there are racers or just chromeheads.
In this part of the Lower Layers, you pay with Ghost Credits.
It’s illegal, digital, anonymous, encrypted and untraceable. We use it for the black market, illegal body modifications, underground betting, and race prizes.
Down in the Lower Layers, we usually use official credits for everyday transactions.
Ghost Credits, though?
They offer something even better.
Freedom from the government tracking every fucking move you make.
Varek flanks my right, Neo my left.
The Grid is loud, packed with makeshift stands, hidden workshops, and rusted metal storefronts.
Vendors shout over clanging tools, humming generators, and restless crowds beneath flickering neon and harsh industrial lights. The air smells of oil, hot steel, disinfectant, old blood, and smoke.
Smells like home.
People are starving, beating each other bloody. Sometimes you'll even see a vendor behind one of those stalls get stabbed in the throat because he refused to negotiate.
The only advantage I have—and every racing gang leader has—is our reputation.
People usually don't try anything and if they do, they usually go for our comms or holos to steal our credits—Ghost or official.
As for me?
I erase them from existence, and they know it.
I walk with a heavy, deliberate stride toward the meeting spot—a run-down old shop. The door hangs crooked on its hinges, and the place smells like shit and oil.
I recoil the moment I shove the door open.
“Damn!” Neo shouts, pinching his nose shut. “Someone definitely died in here. And they probably shit themselves first.”
I nod in agreement and keep moving, stepping over the junk scattered across the floor or kicking it out of my way.
“Boss,” Varek's voice cuts through the stench. “Over there.” He jerks his chin toward a dark corner.
I follow his gaze and see two robots step out of the shadows.
No faces and instead of hands, they've got fucking knives and guns.
My body tenses, and my adrenal booster kicks in, making my eyes glow and my muscles tighten.
“Please, follow us,” one of them says—or whatever you'd call that mechanical voice.
I sweep my gaze over them, then jerk my chin toward Neo.
Neo steps forward and cocks his gun.
We came prepared for something like this. His weapon is loaded with electric rounds designed to fry a robot's entire system.
I knew something felt wrong the moment I got the text with the meeting location.
First, it's in an isolated tunnel.
Second, the message itself was fucking weird.
For the device, please prepare one hundred thousand GC. Come alone and unharmed to Ash & Iron at 1000 hours. -K.
Third, I'm not a fucking idiot.
I know how this shit works and with everything I have, if this is a setup, I'll kill the bastard before he can signal those robots he probably fucks.
Plus, I got a main reason to not die there in this shithole.
I need to get back to her, see her, touch her and go to that fucking ball.
So there's no way I'm letting him—or his robots—lay a finger on me or my men.
The three of us follow them and end up in what looks like the store's basement.
It's bigger than the shop upstairs.
One corner is packed with hundreds of Smart Panels and shattered glass.
A lone figure stands in the middle of the room, surrounded by six robots—not counting the two that escorted us.
“Welcome,” the figure says.
His voice is mechanical, not human.
My eyes narrow, Varek uncrosses his arms, Neo raises his gun.
“I told you to come alone.”
“Well,” I smile, “I'm not the type to obey.”
“Very well.” The voice remains perfectly calm, unsettlingly calm.
“You have the credits?”
“Guess.”
“The device, as indicated, is not designed to hack a system and retrieve what you need. It detects a weakness, copies it, and spreads it throughout the network.” He pauses. “But if no weakness exists, there will be no forced reboot, and therefore no window to act.”
“No shit,” Neo says, his voice stripped of its usual cockiness.
“Come closer.”
I tilt my head in surprise. Did that thing just tell me to come closer?
Absolutely fucking not.
“For what reason?” Varek asks. I can feel his own mods beginning to flare.
It started to heat up on my side.
“To give you the device.”
I sigh and chuckle for a few seconds before stopping dead.
“You think we're stupid?” My voice drops to something lethal. “You'll come to us.”
We hear a series of clicks, like something locking into place.
I frown. What the fuck is that?
The lone neon light flickers overhead as the figure steps into its glow.
What I see makes my blood run cold. What in the world did Ren send us to?
The figure—the man—has almost his entire body replaced with mods, only his head remains human.
I feel Neo take a step back. Actually, take a step back.
Varek raises his hands—not in surrender, but in anticipation.
That thing has bionic arms threaded with glowing green fluid flowing beneath transparent conduits. His chest is completely transparent, exposing his organs.
His heart is still human, but fitted with robotic valves, probably to improve the circulation of blood—or that green fluid.
His legs are nothing but steel and synthetic muscle. His neck is made of two thick pipes where a throat should be, thin streams of that same green fluid pulsing through them.
“What the hell are you?” I ask, genuinely disgusted.
“Future.” The man takes one heavy step toward us.
The silence stretches for a full minute.
What the hell is wrong with that man?
“Don't you remember me, Evren?”
I feel my heart stop for a second in pure shock. How the hell am I supposed to remember that?
“Fuck no.” I take a step back—not out of fear, but to prepare for whatever he's about to do.
“When Ren sent me the request, I prepared the device.” He pauses. “But when I got your comm number, saw your name pop up, and realized it was you...”
He grins, letting the rest hang in the air.
The room suddenly feels colder.
Heavier.
“That still doesn't tell me who the fuck you are.” I yawn.
“Enforcers Academy. The teenager you sent to the hospital and left in an induced coma for two years, floating in those fucking fluids.”
I tilt my head, confused.
I remember the Enforcers Academy where Neo and I got expelled, but I beat up so many people there that I honestly don't remember him.
Before I can even say anything, he raises a single finger, my eyes track the movement since I’m prepared to do anything—thanks to my ocular augmentation.
Without another word, one of the robots charges, raising its bionic gun at Neo.
Neo reacts without hesitation.
He spins, drops low, and fires.
The electric round pierces straight through the robot's head, and a thin trail of smoke curls from the hole.
Within seconds, the remaining robots convulse and collapse to the floor.
Varek explodes into motion, one moment he's standing beside me, the next, he's crushing the heads of two robots beneath his palms.
The basement erupts with the sound of gunfire from the robots and Neo, mixed with Varek's unfiltered violence.
“You'll send me the GC, I'll keep the device, and I'll kill you and your little friends right here,” he snaps.
“Because you fucking ruined my life! I was supposed to be an Enforcer and missed the exams just because I took the last fucking Nitro soda! So I became this just to be able to fucking erase you!”
He laughs, and the green neon fluid surging through his body flares brighter, its flow accelerating.
I slide my right foot back, settling into my stance, and wait to see what he'll do.
I don't spare Neo or Varek a glance. They're competent and efficient.
Oh.
Now I remember him.
I beat the shit out of him because he took the last Nitro can when I was already on edge.
I actually asked if he'd give it to me, he said no, said he needed it to stay awake.
I simply exploded.
Back then, I was even more reckless, beating people up for damn near nothing.
Didn't give a fuck then—still don't.
But leading my gang and throwing myself into racing gave me somewhere to aim those urges.
The silence stopped. Racing, engines, my gang... they filled my head—it became easier to breathe.
The man-robot takes a step forward, the asphalt under his foot cracks.
I crack my neck and knuckles.
But I can't be late for tonight, I need that device for her.
And nothing is going to fucking stop me.