The System Hunter

Chapter 2: A Contract Worth More Dead

Elias threw the rescue jack beneath the carriage wheel.

Steel screamed. The train lurched half a meter, then stopped hard enough to shatter its remaining windows. The woman on the track covered her head. Elias hauled her over the platform edge while the jack bent into useless iron. By the time her feet were safely clear, his balance had fallen to 00:01:19.

Hollen had reached the upper stairs.

Elias ran. His bad wrist throbbed and his breath scraped his chest. The station displayed Jarek Hollen’s photograph on a bright pursuit board, yet not one of the commuters sheltering behind security shutters tried to stop him. They watched their own counters instead. A city that charged people for failure had taught them not to volunteer.

“Hunter,” someone called from the maintenance booth. “Your route is wrong.”

A woman in a dark field jacket stood behind the booth’s cracked glass. She held up a tablet filled with scrolling transaction codes. “The public stairwell locks in fifteen seconds. Take the service shaft.”

Elias had no reason to trust her. He had less reason to ignore an accurate prediction. The public gate slammed shut as he veered through the narrow service opening.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“Tessa Rook. Former Compliance. Your time transfer was authorized under a warrant filed at midnight.”

“I never went to court.”

“Neither did the person whose name appears as judge.”

She pushed the tablet through the opening. On its screen, a stamp read VENN, ELIAS—CONSENT VERIFIED. Beneath it was a fingerprint image he recognized as his own, taken from a hospital form four years ago. The System had not been tricked into misreading a legal order. Someone had built the lie properly.

“Hollen is a courier,” Tessa said. “The transfer itself came from higher up. If you kill him, you may never learn who paid.”

“How do you know he’s not your partner?”

“Because I helped write the audit rules that flagged this kind of fraud, and I got fired for refusing to delete a report.” Her eyes flicked to his counter. “Seventy seconds. Choose what matters.”

Elias snatched the tablet, used its reflection to check the service landing, and climbed. Hollen waited beside an open emergency exit. In his right hand he held the remote. In his left, a compact shock pistol that could stop a person’s heart without leaving much evidence.

“You should have stayed with the injured,” Hollen said.

“You should have asked before emptying my account.”

“I didn’t empty it. I delivered a signed transaction. There’s a difference.”

The pistol rose. Elias swung the tablet. It cracked against Hollen’s wrist; the shot scorched a cable tray overhead. He drove forward, struck Hollen with his shoulder, and pinned the man against the exit rail. They grappled above a twelve-meter drop to the service floor.

Hollen pressed the remote. An amber warning crossed Elias’s vision.

HAZARD: SERVICE LIFT DESCENDING.

A loaded freight platform slid toward them from above. Elias could step backward and let the edge crush Hollen against the rail. His contract would pay eight hours. He could also drag the man under the maintenance overhang, risking both of them for half that reward.

His counter read 00:00:24.

He hooked his fingers into Hollen’s coat and pulled.

The freight lift swept past so close it tore the sleeve from Elias’s jacket. Both men hit the narrow safety recess. Elias drove his knee into Hollen’s thigh, wrenched away the pistol, and snapped a length of cable tie around his wrists.

TARGET IMMOBILIZED.

VERIFYING NONLETHAL CAPTURE...

The display hung. One second. Two. Elias heard the awful precision of his pulse. The balance fell to 00:00:09.

“Come on,” he whispered.

VALID CAPTURE CONFIRMED.

REWARD: +04:00:00.

XP: +120.

LEVEL UP: 1.

LIFE BALANCE: 04:00:08.

He stayed on his knees until the numbers steadied.

Tessa climbed into the recess. Her face had lost its professional calm. “You chose four hours when eight were available.”

“He was alive.”

“He’s also carrying a sealed retrieval order.” She turned Hollen’s wrist and exposed a black administrative tag. “Look at the next target.”

Elias scanned the tag. The order opened with the System’s official seal.

RECOVERY SUBJECT: MARA VENN.

STATUS: NONCOMPLIANT WITNESS.

COLLECTION DEADLINE: 03:59:41.

The clock beside his sister’s name was counting down in exact step with his own.