The tunnel's blue glow intensified, the Sentinel drone's hum rising to a piercing whine that clawed at Kael's nerves. He sprinted alongside Lira, their boots pounding against the undergrid's metal floor, the air thick with the acrid tang of overheated circuits. The Sentinel was no ordinary drone—Concord enforcers were designed to hunt, not just guard. Its neural disruptors could scramble a brain in seconds, leaving nothing but a drooling husk. Kael's pulse pistol was a toy against its alloyed shell, and the quantum shard in his satchel felt heavier with every step, its faint hum a siren call to the AI pursuing them.
"Left!" Kael barked, shoving Lira toward a branching conduit. The tunnel split into a maze of rusted pipes and flickering conduits, the undergrid's labyrinthine heart. He'd mapped these routes years ago, back when he was just a street rat dodging corp security. The knowledge was his edge, but it wouldn't last. Sentinels didn't tire, didn't hesitate. They calculated and killed.
Lira's cybernetic eye glowed faintly, scanning the darkness as she kept pace. "This is your fault, Kael," she hissed, her voice sharp but steady. "You didn't say anything about the Concord!"
"Shut up and run," he snapped, his mind racing. The Concord's involvement meant the shard was more than a VynTek prototype—it was a galactic asset, something the megacorps and their AI overseers would kill to control. Kael had expected corporate goons, maybe a rogue AI or two. But a Sentinel? That was a death sentence unless he played this perfectly.
The tunnel narrowed, forcing them to duck under a tangle of sparking cables. Kael's dataglove pinged, its map flickering with static as the Sentinel's interference scrambled his tech. He cursed under his breath, yanking a smoke pellet from his belt and crushing it. Ionized mist billowed, clogging the air with electromagnetic noise. The Sentinel's whine faltered, its optic momentarily obscured, but Kael knew it was only a delay. Sentinels adapted faster than any human could.
"We need an exit," Lira said, her toolkit clanking as she ran. "The undergrid's a death trap with that thing on us."
Kael didn't respond immediately. His mind churned, calculating angles. The nearest exit was a maintenance hatch leading to Uptown's lower districts, but it was a risk—Uptown was Concord territory, crawling with sensors and patrols. The alternative was deeper into the undergrid, where rogue AIs and black-market gangs held sway. Neither option was safe, but safety was a luxury Kael had never known.
"Uptown," he decided, his voice low. "We find Jyx. She's our only shot at cracking the shard before the Concord fries us."
Lira snorted, but didn't argue. She knew he was right—Jyx, the Ghost Hacker, was a legend in Nexus Prime's underworld. If anyone could interface with the shard without tripping its defenses, it was her. But legends didn't come cheap, and Jyx's debts were as unreliable as Lowtown's power grid.
They reached the hatch, a rusted slab half-buried in debris. Kael pried it open, his muscles straining as the metal groaned. The Sentinel's hum was closer now, its blue glow painting the tunnel walls. Lira scrambled through first, and Kael followed, slamming the hatch shut and jamming its lock with a quick pulse from his dataglove. It wouldn't hold long, but it was enough to buy them a head start.
They emerged into Uptown's lower districts, a stark contrast to Lowtown's neon chaos. Here, the streets were cleaner, lined with sleek towers of glass and chrome that reflected the Lattice Crown's faint arc. Holo-ads floated above, advertising luxury augs and off-world vacations, their promises meaningless to the likes of Kael. The air was crisp, filtered by corporate purifiers, but the weight of surveillance was palpable. Concord watchtowers loomed in the distance, their spires bristling with sensors that could track a heartbeat from a kilometer away.
Kael pulled his hood low, blending into a crowd of late-night workers and aug-addicts. Lira followed, her scar hidden under a shawl she'd scavenged from the undergrid. They moved toward the Chrome Veil, a black-market hub disguised as a high-end nightclub. Jyx operated from its back rooms, her services available to those who could pay—or those who knew her secrets.
The Chrome Veil's entrance was a shimmering curtain of light, guarded by a bouncer with a cybernetic arm that hummed with hidden weaponry. Kael flashed a forged ID chip, stolen from a VynTek exec during a previous job. The bouncer's optic scanned it, then waved them through without a word. Inside, the club pulsed with synthetic beats, the air thick with the scent of synth-alcohol and perfume. Dancers moved under holographic lights, their bodies augmented with glowing implants that shifted in time with the music.
Kael didn't pause to admire the spectacle. He led Lira through the crowd, toward a hidden door behind the bar. A retinal scan and a whispered code—"Threadweaver"—granted them access to a dimly lit corridor. At its end was a steel door, etched with a faint circuit pattern that glowed like the shard in Kael's satchel.
He knocked, three sharp raps. The door slid open, revealing a woman with short-cropped silver hair and eyes that glowed faintly green. Jyx was older than Kael had expected, her face lined with the wear of someone who'd seen too much of Nexus Prime's underbelly. Her left arm was a sleek prosthetic, its surface alive with shifting data streams.
"Kael Vortex," she said, her voice smooth but edged with suspicion. "You've got balls showing up here with half the city after you."
"Word travels fast," Kael said, stepping inside. The room was a hacker's paradise—walls lined with terminals, their screens flickering with code. A holo-display hovered in the center, showing a 3D map of the Lattice's nodes. "I need your help, Jyx. And you owe me."
Jyx's eyes narrowed. "That debt was paid years ago. You think pulling me out of one sting buys you a lifetime pass?"
"I think you're still alive because of me," Kael said, his tone cold. "And I think you're curious about what I've got."
He pulled the shard from his satchel, its iridescent surface catching the room's light. Jyx's breath caught, her prosthetic arm twitching as if drawn to the crystal. "A quantum shard," she whispered. "You're either a genius or a dead man, Kael."
"Help me unlock it, and you'll get a cut," he said. "Enough to retire off-world."
Jyx laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. "You don't retire from the Lattice. But I'll bite. Let's see what you've stolen."
She connected the shard to a terminal, her fingers dancing over a holo-keyboard. Lines of code streamed across the screen, but Kael's attention snapped to his dataglove as it pinged—a proximity alert. The Sentinel had found them, faster than he'd expected. Before he could warn Jyx, the steel door exploded inward, and the drone's blue glow flooded the room.