"You spent five years optimizing shipping routes to ensure maximum throughput with minimal overhead, Vaelric," Tazrek said, his voice dropping an octave as he gestured with the barrel of his magnetic pulse pistol toward the dark, cramped confines of the maintenance corridor. "You designed the very algorithms that dictate which districts get prioritized when the power grids fail. When the Sump goes dark, it's because your math decided three districts over had a higher economic yield."Vaelric’s jaw tightened, his grip on the steel wrench slipping slightly against his sweating palm. "That was corporate theory. Models on a screen. Numbers don't bleed, Tazrek.""Tell that to the families sleeping on the freezing steel grates two levels down," Tazrek snapped back, his eyes narrowing behind the shadow of his utility cap. "They bleed just fine. And every drop of it traces right back to the architecture you drew up on your polished mahogany desk before you decided to play revolutionary in the

"Names don't balance accounts, Vaelric," Tazrek replied coldly, though his finger eased off the magnetic pulse pistol's primary trigger. "They never did. But if you think you can just walk away from the ledger you authored, you're fooling yourself.""I'm not walking away, Dhal," Vaelric said, stepping closer despite the muzzle tracking his chest. "I'm looking for the one man who can help me burn it to the ground. Where is Qevrik?"Tazrek let out a short, harsh bark of laughter, the sound bouncing off the rusted pipes of the sub-basement corridor. "Qevrik? You think the chief architect of the firm's algorithmic encryption is just sitting around waiting for a disgruntled auditor to invite him to tea? He’s gone, Vaelric. Completely unlinked. He saw what the data was doing three years before you finally grew a conscience and jumped ship.""He didn't just disappear," Vaelric pressed, refusing to let the enforcer regain the psychological upper hand. "A mind like that leaves a digital footpr

"And why the hell would I do that?" Tazrek sneered, pressing the barrel of the weapon harder against Vaelric’s sternum. "My orders are to bring you in or drop you in the sump. Delivering you to a deranged former chief engineer doesn't clear my ledger.""Your ledger is already in the red, Dhal," Vaelric shot back without blinking, his hand hovering inches from his utility belt. "The board signed off on sector-wide martial law three hours ago. You think they’re going to give you a pension when this is over? They’ll use you as a scapegoat just like they used everyone else."Tazrek's jaw tightened. The subtle twitch in the enforcer's left eye told Vaelric he had hit a nerve. "The firm takes care of its own.""Does it?" Vaelric challenged, stepping forward until the pulse pistol's casing brushed his jacket. "Ask the last recovery team assigned to Sector Nine. Oh, wait, you can't—their comms were wiped from the central registry right before the lockdown. They were erased, Tazrek. Just like

"Rewrite it how?" Tazrek’s voice dropped an octave, the weapon's crimson light casting a frantic, stuttering glow across the hard angles of his jaw. "The operational history is locked behind three-factor biometric encryption. Not even a senior director can touch it without raising a red flag across the entire regional hub.""You still believe the network is secure?" Vaelric let out a sharp, humorless bark of laughter that echoed off the damp concrete walls of the sub-basement. "The entire system has been bleeding administrative privileges for the last seventy-two hours. I didn't spend a decade writing the core architecture just to leave it vulnerable to front-door logins, Dhal. The board isn't locking you out to protect the data—they're locking you out to quarantine the liability."Tazrek’s gaze flicked away for a fraction of a second, a micro-hesitation that exposed the sudden, creeping fracture in his ironclad composure. "If that’s true, why hasn’t the internal watchdog network flag

Tazrek stumbled back a half-step, staring at the ceiling where white-hot sparks sizzled and died against the damp concrete before his gaze snapped back to Vaelric with murderous intensity."You arrogant bastard," Tazrek hissed, lunging forward to slam Vaelric back against the freezing metal pipes of the service corridor, the metal groaning in protest under the sudden impact. "You think destroying a ceiling tile and shouting corporate buzzwords changes the fact that you're a hunted rat in a concrete maze?""It changes the fact that your boss has already marked your file for permanent deletion," Vaelric gasped, not fighting the grip, instead staring straight into Tazrek’s dilated pupils. "Check your encrypted secondary comms, Dhal. Right now. Go ahead."Tazrek’s hand hovered near his tactical vest, his jaw working furiously as he weighed the bluff against the mounting dread pooling in his gut. "If this is another one of your psychological games, I’m putting a round through your knee.""