He was about to step in when movement caught his eye across the alley. Two figures, low to the ground, dragging a third between them. The body was limp, but Kael could make out a glowing blue tracer burned into the scalp on a shaved head.
Kael's HUD flared.
"Visual match: Lennix. Confirmed trace pattern. Courier profile 87% match."
The two dragging him weren't Jackals. Their gear didn't have the trademark flair. Instead, they wore work-grade armor and suppressed aggression. Professionals, not street trash. They disappeared into an old comms relay station turned black market chop-shop, and faded into the shadows.
Kael didn't hesitate.
"AI," he whispered. "Tell Sovereign to reroute the car. Hold position."
"Confirmed," the AI responded.
"Agent priority shift logged.
Risk level: High."
He crossed the alley in seconds, coat drawn tight, steps silent. A side panel half-hinged on rusted screws served as his entry point. He slipped through a narrow corridor, hearing voices ahead. Two men were arguing, something about "slicing the brain-port before it corrupts." A door clicked open with a metallic scrape. Kael moved up a side stairwell, skipping steps. His pulse stayed even.
"One floor above. Heartbeat rapid. Courier still alive," the AI confirmed.
"Hostiles: three confirmed. All armed."
Kael drew the Initiate-01, moved to the edge of the landing, and peered through a cracked maintenance door. The room beyond glowed with a sickly green wash. It was a repurposed med-bay rigged with neural tap hardware. The courier was strapped into a rusted restraining cradle. His eyes fluttered, trying to fight something laced into his system. A fiber-optic cable dangled an inch from the base of his skull, twitching with each of his convulsions. Three men surrounded him. Two in surgical gear. One standing apart in a clean coat and mirror-shaded mask. Kael sat perfectly still, listening.
"He's got a Sovereign-tagged memory shell, no doubt. We dig too deep, it backlashes. You saw what happened to Jesh."
"Then we don't dig. We copy surface and dump him. No one comes lookin' for scraps like him unless he's carryin' something they want. Pull what's public and bounce the body."
"And if someone comes lookin' for us?"
"We're not worth the strike. We're too small. And they'll just assume it was a rival gang trying to farm tech. Hell, maybe they'll even thank us."
The man in the mirror mask leaned in close to Lennix, speaking softly.
"Let's see what you saw… before someone else does." He reached for the interface line again.
Kael's HUD blinked: "Recommend immediate engagement. If data is breached, courier's memory and sovereign fragment will be lost."
Kael tensed his grip and made his move. He slid a hand into his coat and withdrew a micro-flare puck. It was a small device rigged with directional lightburst and echo static he kept in his toolbelt for vault runs. They came in handy when you needed a diversion. He thumbed the activation node and rolled it gently across the floor toward a storage closet on the far side of the lab.
It clicked once.
Then—
FZZZZT—CRACK.
The puck ignited in a sharp flash of white-blue light, followed by a shrill burst of audio feedback designed to mimic failed tech overload. Panels flickered. The closest med-tech cursed and ran toward the spark, waving his arms.
"What now? It's the inverter again—"
The one with the mirror mask turned—
Thfft.
A suppressed round shattered his right ocular lens, blowing him backward into the wall. Kael was already shifting, pistol recoiling softly.
The second man—the assistant—turned just in time to see Kael's shadow rise in front of him.
Crack.
The butt of the Initiate-01 collapsed his trachea.
The final tech turned from the panel, scalpel still in hand, panic scrambling across his face. Kael switched to the shock blade with one swift motion, pulling it out in a clean arc, right past the mans throat. He grabbed at his neck, slumping to the ground as the blood poured through his fingers. Only Lennix was left. His chest heaved, eyes wide and flickering.
"Subject stable," the AI confirmed.
"Neural link untouched. Memory shell intact. Courier extraction viable."
"Optional: implant trace-lock to observe future activity."
"Alternative: full rescue. Add to Sovereign's underground courier network."
Kael cut Lennix free with swift, surgical precision. "Easy," Kael muttered. "You're clear."
The boy blinked, his pupils sluggish to adjust.
"You're… not with them?"
"No."
Kael helped him to his feet.
Then—
PING.
A faint red pulse swept across Kael's HUD as his AI scanned the room one last time.
"Detecting hidden signal anomaly."
"Wall cabinet—east corner. Neuro-locked safe detected."
"Clearance: Level 2. Substrate-grade encryption."
"Suggested action: acquire access protocol or override."
Kael's eyes flicked to the cabinet. It wasn't anything special. A cracked mirror hung above it. One of the dead techs had left blood smeared across the edge. He stepped over the bodies, searching them methodically. He came up empty. Just low-level creds and spent stims.
"Waste of time," he muttered.
Lennix, now propped against the wall and regaining his bearings, squinted toward the safe.
"Wait." He took a slow breath. "That lock… I know that signal. It's old Neurodyne, back when they did wet-ware for Sovereign's early black-tier mods."
Kael looked at him.
"You can crack it?"
Lennix grinned faintly, blood still drying at the corner of his mouth.
"If you've got ten seconds of silence and don't mind a little spark."
Kael stepped back, watching.
Lennix approached with the limp of someone who'd been tortured—and had lived through worse. He reached into his own jacket, fished out a tool no bigger than a pen drive, and slid it along the seam.
The safe clicked once, then again.
And hissed open.
Inside:
A black datacube labeled "SYRENTHE CORE – Revision 2C."A small vial of shimmering silver nanofluid—clearly experimental.Jewls cache token: estimated worth—15,000 JWLS.
"Datacube recognized," the AI murmured. "Substrate-compatible.
Research module. Classified intelligence."
"Nanofluid: Potential upgrade catalyst.
Warning—unverified compound."
"Jewls token added to balance. +15,000."
Kael pocketed everything with care.
Lennix looked up at him.
"Guess I owed you one. Paid in full?"
Kael nodded. "Close."
They stepped back into the alley. One target already extracted, one unexpected ally rescued. When they returned to the vehicle, Kael turned to Lennix.
"This is your stop. Lay low for a while. Sovereign will be in touch. You have a much better job on the way."
Lennix responded slowly. "Why are you helping me?"
Kael didn't answer at first. He just nodded toward the street beyond the alley—away from the Jackals, away from the corpses.
"You've got something in you Sovereign thought was worth saving."
He shut the door behind him, and the car glided away, smoke curling in its wake