System Reboot

Chapter Four: The Broker

"There's a way to force a trigger. There's just a cost attached, and you're not going to like it."

Priya said it flat, no dressing it up, tablet balanced on her knee while Ray slept in the corner and Wren pretended not to listen from three feet away.

"I'm listening," Dax said.

"There's a controlled encounter two blocks into Zone 2. Low-tier spawn, capped level, doesn't scale past a certain threshold. People go there specifically to trigger Classes because the danger's real but it's survivable if you know the fight pattern." Priya turned the tablet so he could see a crude hand-drawn map, scratched notes in the margins. "Problem is, it's not free ground. Somebody controls access."

"Who."

"Guy named Tobias Nkemelu. Goes by Cutter. Sits at seven on the Leaderboard. Runs the encounter like a toll booth, charges supplies or favors to let people in."

"Vanguard?"

"No. Independent. Which means he's not obligated to help us and not obligated to stop us either. He just wants to get paid."

Dax rubbed a hand down his face. Forty-four hours left and counting, the number sitting behind his eyes like a headache that wouldn't quit.

"What's he charge?"

"Depends on the day. Sometimes food. Sometimes intel. Sometimes he just likes watching people argue with him because he's bored and there's not much else to do at the end of the world."

"Sounds delightful."

"He's not terrible. Just careful about who he trusts, which around here is honestly the smart way to be." Priya closed the tablet. "I can take you to him. But Wren needs to survive the encounter once we're in, and I want to be straight with you about the odds. Capped or not, it's still a real fight."

Wren sat up straighter at that, dropping the pretense of not listening.

"I can survive a fight," she said.

"I know you can," Dax said. "That's not what worries me."

"Then what does?"

He didn't have a clean answer for her, not one that wouldn't sound like doubt, so he didn't try to force one.

They left before sunrise. Zone 2 sat a mile east, the border marked by a stretch of road where the asphalt simply stopped behaving like asphalt, rippling in slow waves that never quite settled. Dax had crossed it before. It never got less wrong to look at.

Cutter's setup turned out to be an old parking garage, three levels, guarded loosely by a handful of armed scavengers who didn't look particularly worried about anyone approaching. Priya led them straight to the second level, where a man sat on an overturned car hood, boots up, level indicator glowing a steady seven above his head.

"Osei," Cutter said, not bothering to stand. "Been a while."

"Needed a favor."

"Everybody needs a favor. That's the whole economy now." His eyes slid to Dax, then to Wren, lingering a beat too long on her Unranked status. "Audit kid, huh. Saw the sweep notice. Bad timing to be born without a level."

"We need the trigger encounter," Dax said. "Today. Now, if you can manage it."

"Everybody wants now." Cutter finally swung his legs down, standing slow, unhurried, like time meant something different to a man sitting at rank seven. "What's it worth to you?"

"Name it."

"Careful saying that to a broker. I might get creative." He studied Dax a moment, something calculating behind his easy grin. "Heard a rumor last night. Vanguard's number one paid a personal visit to Zone 1. Word travels fast when the man himself steps out of his territory. That true?"

Dax felt Priya go still beside him.

"It's true," Dax said.

"And you're the guy who apparently knows him. Old war buddy, something like that." Cutter's grin widened slightly. "That's interesting information. That's worth something."

"I'm not selling stories about Marcus."

"Didn't ask you to sell a story. Asked what it's worth to have one." Cutter shrugged, easy, unbothered. "Fine. Keep it. Here's my price instead — you get Wren through the encounter, and when it's done, you tell me straight whether the number one Ranker in the Grid is planning something bigger than routine sweeps. I've got people I answer to who'd like advance warning if Zone 2's about to get folded into Vanguard territory."

"You want intel in exchange for the encounter."

"I want intel in exchange for not charging you supplies you clearly don't have to spare." Cutter nodded toward Wren, toward the road behind them, toward the general state of a group running on empty. "Call it professional courtesy. I like kids surviving audits. Bad for morale otherwise."

Dax weighed it. No good reason to trust a broker who traded in information as currency, and every reason to need what he was offering.

"Deal," Dax said.

Cutter's grin turned satisfied. He whistled once, sharp, and two of his scavengers peeled off the perimeter to lead the way toward the garage's lower level, where a ramp spiraled down into dark that smelled faintly of ash and something wetter underneath it.

"Rules are simple," Cutter said, walking beside them now. "One spawn, capped at Tier 2. It'll come at whoever's weakest in the group first, that's just how the trigger encounters work, System likes testing the soft spot. Kid needs to survive contact long enough for the trigger window to open. Usually thirty, forty seconds. Feels longer when you're in it."

"And if she doesn't survive it?"

"Then I lose a customer and you lose a kid, and neither of us wants that outcome, so let's not dwell on it." Cutter stopped at the top of the ramp, gesturing them forward with mock formality. "After you, Doc. Heard you're good at keeping people breathing. Hope that's true today."

Wren's hand found Dax's sleeve again, quick and tight, gone just as fast, like she needed the contact but didn't want anyone to see her need it.

"Stay behind me," Dax said quietly. "Whatever comes up that ramp, it goes through me first."

"That's not how a trigger encounter works," Priya said. "It's supposed to target her."

"I know how it's supposed to work."

Somewhere below them, deep in the dark, something shifted against concrete, slow and heavy, the sound of it climbing the ramp toward the sound of their voices.

Dax stepped forward, putting himself first in line, and felt his HUD flicker faintly at the edges, the System already paying attention, already waiting to see exactly how far he'd let this go before something in him finally broke the way it was supposed to.