Chapter 3
Viktor Garris, head of security, knelt by the body of Softbiotics’s most renowned engineer and tried not to think about the laws he’d have to bend to clean up this mess. That they’d found Dr. Ana Katz in Dreswick, of all places, was ludicrous. That she was dead was a damned catastrophe.
She’d been the mastermind behind the first twelve generations of amps, though she’d slowed down recently, only consulting on the last few gens.
Everyone had assumed she was just getting old.
It wasn’t until last week when Garris discovered that Dr. Katz had been moonlighting, secretly designing her own amp line on the side despite having a very clear noncompete agreement.
Garris had sent two of his best men to retrieve her and the design, but she’d evaded them… until tonight.
He activated his amp—the most advanced military model on the market—and attempted to bypass Katz’s bioengineering amp. Hers was also top-tier, but its firewalls shouldn’t have been any match against military-grade tech.
Shouldn’t have been.
His amp reported directly in his mind. I am unable to breach this amp’s firewalls, Viktor. It appears the host installed unsanctioned upgrades.
“Of course she did,” he muttered dryly. “Even dead, Katz is still a pain in my ass.”
He glared at Darius Mallon and Jaxon Donista. Mallon was still clutching his side even though the wound had been patched.
“Quit being a baby, Mallon,” Garris snapped. “It’s just a papercut. A few bionanites, and you won’t even notice it.”
Mallon lowered his hand and stood taller, wincing in the process.
Garris ignored him and pulled the knife from the scientist’s chest. He held the blade, covered in dried blood, for Donista to see. “Looks like you left something behind, Donista.”
The enforcer gulped. “It was that stupid low-towner. If Mally had done his job and?—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish because Garris lunged, pressing the knife tip against Donista’s chest, directly over his heart.
“You were saying?” Garris asked nonchalantly, pressing the tip harder until Donista recoiled.
“Sorry, sir. My fault, sir,” Donista stammered before clamping his mouth shut.
Garris held the knife there for a few more seconds to make sure Donista got the point—both figuratively and literally. Then he flipped the blade and offered the handle to the enforcer, who took it with a sigh of relief.
Garris positioned himself between the pair of enforcers. “Show me the alley scene.” He closed his eyes, letting his amp access their amps’ video feeds. His AI cycled through the last eight hours, pinpointing the moment the pair cornered Dr. Katz in the alley.
She hadn’t had time to hide the design once she spotted Donista and Mallon, but she was smart—too smart for her own good.
She had probably hidden it earlier. He sent a mental command to his amp to analyze all drone footage of the doctor’s latest guise for possible locations where she could’ve stashed her work.
It probably wasn’t even here in Dreswick—she’d likely hidden it as soon as she realized she was being followed home from Softbiotics Tower in Aberdeen a week ago.
They’d already searched her house and her ship, and it wouldn’t be long before they tracked any other of her locations.
Task scheduled, his amp confirmed as it continued to play the alley scene.
Garris watched as Donista shoved the doctor against the wall and began interrogating her while Mallon took her bag and patted her down.
Everything had gone by the book… until some low-towner stumbled into the way.
When he fought Mallon, it was clear he had some experience, either from cage fights or because he was in a gang—or both, most likely.
He obviously didn’t have any real training, just the feral style so typical in the slums.
Mallon should’ve put down the interloper in the first three seconds, but he’d been sloppy.
Garris never made that sort of mistake. Hardly anyone from Dreswick had amps, which meant they had to rely solely on themselves and should never be underestimated.
Garris winced as the two men slammed into Donista, telegraphing exactly how the enforcer accidentally stabbed the doctor.
The fight offered nothing of value, but as the enforcers hustled from the alley, Donista glanced back, catching a glimpse of the low-towner crouching to check on the doctor.
Had she told him her secret?
Garris stopped the playback and had his amp pull up an image of the interloper.
He initiated a facial-recognition scan. He had only a fifty/fifty chance of a hit, given Dreswick’s shoddy recordkeeping.
The only residents in the system had either been arrested at some point or worked in a corporate factory.
A second later, his amp returned a profile with an eighty-four percent match, and he smiled in surprise. The details read:
Callum Bennett
Employee at Powerworks Manufacturing
Home address: Unknown
Relatives: Unknown
No misdemeanors or felonies on file.
Incomplete and missing details were common on Dreswick profiles.
The manager of this factory deserved kudos for tracking his employees’ biodata.
An eighty-four percent match was good enough to bring him in.
Garris had expected the brawler to have an arrest record, but it seemed that he was just a factory grunt. “A Goody Two-Shoes then,” he muttered.
He activated the comm in his ear and placed a call. It connected on the first ring.
“Do you have it?” Roman Voss, Softbiotics’s head of bioengineering, asked without any sort of preamble. The fact that he didn’t inquire about Katz, his prized scientist, spoke volumes.
“We’re working on it,” Garris growled as he paced the alley.
“Work harder.” The young scientist sounded whiny.
“From what I grabbed from her computer before she fried it, this design is the culmination of her life’s work.
That means it’s got to be something special.
I’m not talking about Gen 16 here. I’m talking about a design that skips sixteen generations ahead.
Do you understand what this could mean for us? ”
“I get it.” Garris despised Voss’s eternal condescension. He added, “We’ve got Katz.”
“Good, but it’s the design I want. Keep looking. But at least bring her in. If she won’t talk, I might be able to hack her amp.”
“She won’t be talking to anyone anymore,” Garris said flatly. “But I’ll get her amp to you.”
“What did you d—” Voss began, but Garris disconnected the call before he could finish.
He turned to his enforcers. “I’m sending you the profile on the low-towner who attacked you.
I want you to find him and question him.
Maybe he saw something, maybe she told him something, maybe he was connected to Katz and that’s why he went after you.
I assume the two of you can handle one man without an amp. ”
Mallon snorted. “Of course. We were just trying to be covert before.”
“We’ll get right on it,” Donista added.
Garris nodded toward the body of Dr. Katz. “Before you do, get that to Voss.”