Evan smiled. He felt a rush of pure excitement. He did not need the purple fire to fight. He did not need to shoot energy from his hands. He could see the future of the math. He could see the weakness of the Bank before the Bank even knew it was weak. Evan turned to Glitch. "Glitch," Evan said, his voice sharp and full of command. "Get your tablet ready.""It is broken, Evan!" Glitch whimpered, showing the cracked screen. "I only have a basic connection to the open trading floor Wi-Fi! I cannot hack the core!""I do not want you to hack the core," Evan said quickly. "I want you to make trades. We are going to play the game."Marco looked at Evan like he was crazy. "Play the game? Kid, we have zero money! How can we trade?"Evan pointed to the dead black spoofer bracelet on his wrist. "Jax put forty-five years on this fake ID. Marco, you have thirty years. Glitch, you have fifteen years. It is not much. But it is enough to make a bet.""Are you insane?" Rell asked, stepping forward.

The dark alley was perfectly quiet. The cold, dirty rain dripped from the rusty metal pipes above. Vex, the faceless rebel leader in the mirrored mask, pressed the glowing red button on the remote control. Vex expected to see fire. Vex expected to see Evan, Marco, and Glitch explode into pieces. The liquid explosive inside their veins was supposed to ignite instantly. Vex pressed the button hard. Nothing happened. There was no explosion. There was no fire. There was no screaming. Evan Kennedy stood perfectly still in the dark. He looked at Vex. He did not look scared. He looked completely calm. Vex pressed the red button again. Still, nothing happened. "Why aren't you burning?" Vex demanded. The robotic, distorted voice was full of shock and confusion. "The spoofers should detonate!"Evan slowly raised his left arm. He pulled back the sleeve of his dark blue suit. He showed Vex the black metal bracelet locked onto his wrist. The small blue screen on the bracelet was complete

"We do not need to walk into a bank," Glitch said excitedly. He pulled out his broken, cracked tablet. "In the Mid-Levels, businesses are registered at Automated Commercial Terminals. They are giant, self-service computers. There are no human tellers. Just machines.""Exactly," Marco smiled. "Glitch can forge the digital signatures. I know the legal codes to make the company look perfectly real. I used to set these up for rich idiots who wanted to hide their money from their wives.""There is one problem," Rell interrupted. Her green eyes were sharp. "To register a new company at an automated terminal, you need a biometric scan to prove you are a real person. You need to scan your hand. And Evan, you do not have a spoofer anymore. If you scan your hand, the machine will read your DNA. The computer will immediately recognize you as Subject 04. The alarms will ring instantly."The tunnel went quiet again. Rell was right. The plan was perfect, except for the locked door. Evan looked at

"I know," Evan said. He looked at the black data-pad in his hand. He tapped the screen. The pad woke up. It required no fingerprints now; it was synced to his fake identity. The screen displayed the global stock market. It showed millions of numbers scrolling past. It was exactly like the giant screens in the Exchange, but it was right in the palm of his hand. "Evan," Glitch said nervously. "Do not use your Chronos Perception. The data will give you a terrible headache again. You will pass out.""That is the beautiful part," Evan smiled. He looked at the black data-pad. He opened the mental door in his mind. He let his Chronos Perception trigger. The world slowed down. The gray washed over the alley. Evan braced himself for the blinding, burning pain in his skull. He waited for the screams of the digital data to crush him. But the pain did not come. There was no screaming. There was no burning. Because the black data-pad was a legal, highly encrypted, executive Bank device, i

Everything slowed down to a perfect, silent crawl. A drop of rain falling from the ceiling stopped in mid-air, hanging perfectly still like a clear glass bead. The world washed out into a dull, flat gray color. But the black data-pad on the table exploded with brilliant, vivid light. Evan did not look at the screen with his physical eyes. He looked at the data with his mind. Because he was using the highly encrypted executive pad, the data did not scream at him. It did not try to crush his skull. It flowed gently into his brain like a quiet river of numbers. Evan searched the global market. He was looking for a specific type of company. He did not want to crash a hospital. He did not want to crash a water supply. He wanted to find a company that hurt people. He wanted to find a monster. He scrolled through the massive digital ocean. He found one. The company was called: OMNI-SYNTH CORPORATION. Evan stared at the glowing name. He knew that name very well. Every single person in