"No." The word was cold, precise, utterly without emotion. "You don't have to be sorry, Rage."Alex's blood turned to ice.Rage??Only the circuit knows him as Rage, and does it mean -His body reacted before his mind could catch up, muscles coiling tight as he scrambled backward, his injured ankle screaming in protest. The Glock was still in his back pocket, but his hand was shaking too badly to reach for it, and the man was already moving, closing the distance between them with the fluid grace of someone who had done this a hundred times before.The kick came fast, just too fast to track. Alex saw a blur of polished leather, then white-hot pain exploded across his face as the heel connected with his jaw. The impact lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing into the brick wall behind him, his skull bouncing against the rough surface with a crack that echoed down the alley. He crumpled to the ground, blood flooding his mouth."Ahhhh Fuck!" The groan tore out of him, raw and animal

The woman took another step forward, her knife catching the weak hallway light, and Alex's body made the decision before his mind could weigh the options. He turned and ran, taking the stairs two at a time, his injured ankle screaming with every impact but his survival instinct drowning out the pain. He burst onto the second floor and found the hallway empty. That was wrong. This building had families eating twenty meters below, apartments stacked above, and yet this corridor stretched before him in absolute stillness. But he could feel warmth leaking from under the doors he passed-there are actually people, but they are isolated, completely unaware that a man was about to die in their hallway.The thought barely registered. He was already moving, throwing himself at the first door on his right, his fingers closing around the handle and yanking.Locked.A desperate sound escaped his throat, something between a growl and a whimper, and he shoved away from the door with enough force to

The tech room pulsed with quiet electricity of twenty workstations running at full capacity. Giff stood at the center of it all, his hands clasped behind his back, his jaw set tight enough to ache. On the massive monitor that dominated the far wall, Alex was dragging himself across a rooftop, one hand pressed to his injured thigh."Sir."The voice belonged to Dietrich, the youngest technician on the crew, a kid with circular glasses and a faded hoodie who still believed enthusiasm could substitute for experience. He was half-turned in his chair, one hand pressing his headset tighter against his ear, his eyes wide with the nervous energy of someone about to deliver news he wasn't sure would be welcomed."Talk to me," Giff said, not turning from the monitor."I've got a lock on Karina's tracker. She's not far from the city perimeter, maybe twenty minutes out from the player's current position." Dietrich's fingers flew across his keyboard, and a secondary window popped up on the monitor

Alex made it past the first floor landing, his breath coming in ragged pulls that scraped against his throat, while his His legs trembled with every step. The stairwell was dark and cold and smelled of old cigarettes and damp concrete, and he was so focused on placing one foot in front of the other that he almost didn't see her until it was too late.She stood at the bottom of the stairwell like a ghost dragged back from the grave.The British woman. Her ponytail had come loose, dark strands plastered to her forehead with sweat and blood, and her eyes—God, her eyes—were red-rimmed and wild, the eyes of someone who had stopped being fully human somewhere around the third flight of stairs. In one hand she clutched the electrode rod, its prongs still crusted with dried blood. In the other, a handgun, black and ugly and pointed directly at his chest."Shit." The word fell out of Alex's mouth before he could catch it, and then he was moving, throwing himself sideways off the stairs just

The car screamed through a left turn, tires biting into asphalt with a shriek. Alex body lurched sideways, the seatbelt catching him hard across the chest, and for one stomach-dropping moment the vehicle felt like it was about to roll. Then the suspension settled, the engine roared, and they were flying straight again."Be careful!" Alex gripped the door handle, his knuckles white, his other hand fumbling with the laces of his running shoes.Karina scoffed, not even glancing at him. "It's a German car, not a Chinese one." She punched the accelerator and the engine answered with a deep, throaty growl that pushed him back into his seat. The city thinned around them—buildings giving way to trees, streetlights replaced by the gray filter of cloud-covered sky through bare branches.Alex finished buckling his shoes and his eyes found the duffel bag slumped in the corner of the back seat. He dragged it toward him, unzipped it, and began pulling out pieces. "So where the fuck are we going, w