"He’s not just under, Caedrik," Vaedrix said, his boots scraping across the bleached floor as he yanked the heavy tactical knife from his belt and sliced through the thick bundle of silver-threaded sensor cables tethered to Othrek’s temples. "He’s hardwired into their local feedback loop. If we yank these terminals out wrong, his brain is going to fry right here in the chair." "Don't cut the data conduits!" Caedrik yelled, his hands flying across the blinking diagnostic rack, desperately punching override sequences into the primary terminal. "You sever the feedback line without closing the handshake protocol, the system registers a localized hardware failure and locks every exit in this sector down to the sub-basement!" "I don't give a damn about the handshake protocol!" Vaedrix barked, sawing through the final rubber-encased wire with a sharp, violent wrench. "Look at his eyes, Caedrik! The man is bleeding fr

 "Clear the threshold!" Caedrik screamed, lunging sideways and dragging Othrek’s limp legs out of the line of fire as a concentrated burst of kinetic rounds chewed through the drywall where they had stood a fraction of a second earlier. Plaster dust exploded into the air, choking their lungs and turning the strobing red emergency lights into a hazy, nightmarish blur of crimson and grey. "Return fire!" Vaedrix barked, dropping to one knee while still supporting Othrek's upper body with his left arm. With his right hand, he unclipped a heavy stun baton from his tactical belt and slammed the baseplate against the deck, discharging a localized electromagnetic pulse that sizzled across the floor tiles. The sharp blue arc leaped from tile to tile, instantly short-circuiting the advance gear of the lead enforcer whose boots were soaked in the wet runoff from a ruptured overhead pipe. The enforcer seized up instantly, his graphite

"Clear the threshold!" Caedrik screamed, lunging sideways and dragging Othrek’s limp legs out of the line of fire as a concentrated burst of kinetic rounds chewed through the drywall where they had stood a fraction of a second earlier. Plaster dust exploded into the air, choking their lungs and turning the strobing red emergency lights into a hazy, nightmarish blur of crimson and grey."Return fire!" Vaedrix barked, dropping to one knee while still supporting Othrek's upper body with his left arm. With his right hand, he unclipped a heavy stun baton from his tactical belt and slammed the baseplate against the deck, discharging a localized electromagnetic pulse that sizzled across the floor tiles. The sharp blue arc leaped from tile to tile, instantly short-circuiting the advance gear of the lead enforcer whose boots were soaked in the wet runoff from a ruptured overhead pipe.The enforcer seized up instantly, his graphite-plated armor locking rigid as thousands of volts surged through

"Hold onto something solid!" Mara yelled, her voice straining over the screaming whine of the delivery van’s overtaxed transmission.In the passenger seat, Caedrik braced both hands against the dashboard as the vehicle careened sharply to the left. "You call this driving? We’re not evading them, Mara, we’re auditioning for a scrap heap!""Shut up and watch the rearview!" Mara barked, wrenching the wheel hard to right the van as a heavy kinetic slug punched cleanly through the passenger-side door panel, sending a shower of razor-sharp fiberglass shrapnel into the cab.In the back, Vaedrix threw his entire weight over Othrek’s trembling body, shielding the data broker as another round shattered the side window. Glass rained down like diamond dust. "Mara, we can’t take much more of this! The rear axle is groaning like it’s about to shear off!""Then don't look at the axle!" Mara shouted back, her eyes locked on the narrow, rain-slicked alleyway ahead that opened directly into the sprawli