12. TheLab #2
I’d bet good money he didn’t use the sanctioned skyways. Probably took the low streets, as I did, weaving his ridiculous custom coupe through traffic, outrunning En4ce drones like it was one of his underground night races.
He twirls a guitar pick between his fingers restlessly. The man lives for speed, whether it’s on a stage, behind a wheel, or sprinting straight into trouble.
He’s running on adrenaline. “Tell me,” he says lightly, voice still riding the speed high, “that I didn’t just break like ten traffic laws and piss off half the city’s drones for nothing.”
I roll my eyes. “Ember, scrub him from the grid...again.”
She obeys, her fingers typing furiously on her keyboard terminal.
“Relax. It’s definitely something,” I reassure him.
Ash’s eyes flick to the spot where Vikktor stood moments ago. “So, I’m guessing he wasn’t here to tell you you won employee of the month?” He straightens, pushing off the frame, the pick snapping once between his fingers.
“Ash, don’t start,” I mutter, but he’s already hovering over the console, his glowing eyes locking in on the location of the anomalies.
“Two points. Synced. Big fucking energy. Wow.” He stops dead, eyes focused, trying to lock in on the vibrations I’m sure are emanating from the source. For once, he’s not smiling.
“What is it?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. “What do you know?”
He doesn’t answer right away. He just stares at the lights. They’re speaking a language only he can hear. Finally, he drags his gaze from the screen to Ember, who’s trying too hard to look busy with her data scrub.
“You believe her?” he asks me flatly, tilting his head toward Ember. “That this is just ‘noise?’ ” Clearly he had been standing outside the lab door for a while.
“Vikktor said...” Ember cuts in, but Ash shuts her down impatiently.
“Vikktor would call a goddamn earthquake noise if it didn’t serve his purposes,” Ash snaps, stepping closer to the grid.
The lights throb again, brighter now. He lowers his voice.
“No, this...this feels like an accident. Like a warning of something catastrophic trying to break through. Someone can’t control their gift. ”
I scoff. “Break through what?”
“DreamNet, GameNet, the grid...” Ash shakes his head, lips pressed tight, refusing to elaborate. His gaze lingers on the synced anomalies as if he knows something I don’t, and he’s not about to hand it over.
Ember clears her throat, her voice steady but her eyes fixed firmly on Ash. “You two really should listen when Vikktor gives an order. Some things aren’t meant to be dissected.”
Ash lets out a snicker. “Yeah, Red? Well, I don’t work for Daddy, so maybe some things aren’t meant to stay buried.”
For a moment it feels like the whole lab might crack. The hum of the neon and the pulse of the grid syncs with my heartbeat as I sort through all of this. I drag a hand through my hair, trying to cut the tension. “Enough. Both of you.”
Ash doesn’t move. He just keeps staring at the two blips, trying to get a read on anything that could help us decipher what just happened.
I start pacing. I have to act now. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anything happen to my hard work, years of research, and discipline.
I know those lights aren’t normal magic noises. “Ember, let’s run the power flare diagnostics program. I want to know everything about these two anomalies, including where they’re located, in the next fifteen minutes.” I walk past Ash to my office.
He joins me, eager to tell me his thoughts without Ember listening in. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but every part of me screams that this is big, Kaze.”
He grips my elbow like he’s about to embrace me, my childhood nickname spilling from him again.
He must be in hyperfocus mode. “I felt power like this in the club and again in the DarkMarket a few days ago. But that’s all I can tell you.
” He steps closer, his eyes pulsing in time with his tattoos, and I suspect he may be using his magic on me.
“What glows on this map isn’t meant for me. It’s meant for you.”
The words land heavier than they should.
Meant for me.
Two lights. Synced. Mirrored. A slip-up? Or defiance? Either way, they’re calling me.
There it is again, that feeling; a tingle throughout my core. I keep getting it when I’m trying to work through a problem. It coils in my chest like an instinct, the same instinct that used to drag me into fights I knew I wouldn’t lose. This job is going to kill me someday.
“Say it,” I tell him, though I don’t know what I’m asking for.
Ash doesn’t. He just watches me, eyes obscure, like he’s standing at the edge of a cliff and letting me decide whether to jump over with him.
I instantly decide to let those flares light a fuse straight through me. “Two anomalies,” I say quietly, a dark ribbon unfurling in my chest. “They can glow all they want, but in the end, everything in the grid answers to me.”
Ash grins crookedly. “Well, good news is no CIC. Bad news is this means it’s a three-way. You, me, Ember, questionable ethics, zero oversight.” He touches his chin. “Wait...when has a three-way ever been a bad idea?” he ponders.
I have to laugh at that one, but my smile fades quickly. “Whoever lit up my grid tonight,” I murmur, eyes locked on the pulsing points, “just volunteered to be found.”