“They’re definitely heading for the border. We gotta get ’em before they slip up to level nine,” Big Andy growled as he reloaded the tommy gun.

  They barreled down the road at a dangerous speed when one of the men in the car ahead leaned out with a gun, and a bullet punched straight through their windshield.

  Amber and Riven ducked, covering their heads.

  “Piece of shit junk heap!” Andy snarled and threw the jammed tommy gun aside. “Amber, give me yours!”

  Amber tossed her gun into the back. Andy grabbed it, leaned out the window, and unleashed deafening fire at the car ahead.

  Bullets hammered the trunk of the big vehicle, and its rear window shattered.

  Another man popped out of the enemy car and fired several shots back. Their front windshield exploded into a rain of shards.

  Amber covered her head with her arms and curled down low.

  “Hold on!” Riven yelled and jerked the wheel hard.

  The car screeched and swerved wildly from side to side, dodging bullets. One shot blew out their headlight.

  Amber slowly lifted her head, a few glass shards sliding from her hair. Sharp cold air blasted into the car through the broken window. Big A kept firing relentlessly. She reached into her neckline — under her bra she felt the small box, still there. She exhaled, just a little.

  The cars zig?zagged at insane speed until Andy finally hit the rear wheel of the enemy vehicle.

  The tire blew, and the big black car skidded across the road like on ice. It spun, slid down the wide avenue, and slammed full?speed into the Willington Immigrant Memorial. The windows burst, and the wrecked vehicle slumped against the statue in the center of the roundabout.

  Riven slammed the brakes, jerking all of them forward. If Amber hadn’t grabbed the dashboard, she would’ve smashed her forehead into it.

  They stopped a few meters from the memorial. Sparks shot from under the crumpled hood of the wreck, and small flames began licking upward.

  All three jumped out immediately.

  Big Andy, tommy gun in hand, rushed to the front door and yanked it open. Behind the wheel sat the same dandy who’d mocked him earlier. Now his face was covered in blood, several implants flickering, and streams of blood dripped from his mouth where teeth were missing. His glowing red eyes turned toward Andy as he coughed up more blood, a horrible sound rattling in his throat.

  The others looked dead, but Riven still pulled out his pistol and put a few rounds into the remaining bodies, just to be sure.

  Big Andy grinned. “Who’s laughin’ now, huh? You thought we’d shit ourselves and hand over our heist like good little boys?” He laughed. “Then you got no fuckin’ clue who we are.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket, flicked it, and a blue flame shot out.

  The man writhed in the seat, but he couldn’t escape.

  Big Andy pressed the blue flame to the implant on his forehead. The man screamed in agony. The sound of burning circuitry filled the air as sparks burst from his mouth, eyes, and ears — implants short?circuiting one by one, frying his brain like meat on a pan.

  “I got it!” Riven shouted as he yanked a black briefcase from the car and tossed it to Amber. “We’re out!”

  They jumped back into their bullet?riddled car just as police sirens wailed from the far end of the avenue. Riven cursed, slammed the gas, and the car lurched forward. Behind them, the wrecked vehicle exploded, flames shooting high into the air.

  They sped down the wide road. Amber looked back — several police cars were gaining on them. Osirion saw everything, and Osirion always responded fast.

  “Now would be a damn good time for your little toy!” Andy shouted at her while opening the briefcase to check its contents.

  Amber reached into her neckline and pulled out the small red box with golden patterns — the one thing Osirion couldn’t see. She pressed a button, and a cable slid out. She plugged it into the port on her forehead.

  The moment she did, the box lit up — and her consciousness slipped into cyberspace.

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  She left all the noise behind and found herself before a massive golden sign: Welcome to RedShell. It dissolved a second later, and she was thrown into the center of the digital storm — surrounded by billions of data streams from across the city. She flew through a void of numbers, words, and images — so many that any normal human mind would burn out instantly.

  But the little red box gave her power. Power to bend this place. Power to twist Willington’s cyberspace and make herself invisible to the authorities.

  It didn’t take her long. She was practiced. All she needed was a moment to erase the three of them from tonight’s events. From camera feeds, reports, logs — gone. Just like every time they pulled a job like this. The police and the guards would never find them, because to Osirion, they had never existed. And tonight, no one like them had been here at all.

  Riven weaved through the streets, managing to shake off the police cars and escape the district.

  They arrived at the rendezvous point — level eight, the zone where corporations kept their warehouses. A maze of identical massive windowless blocks with neon signs like Charmitage Cyber Inc., Lyonel Layton, DTT, Copp’s Workshop… At this hour, all work had stopped; the whole area echoed with emptiness.

  They stepped out of the car at the same time. In front of the hovercraft, men in long black coats were already waiting for them, weapons ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

  One of them stepped forward and scanned them instantly with his eye implants.

  Big Andy approached him with the briefcase in hand.

  “Mr. Hayworth,” the man said in a neutral voice. “I trust the shipment is intact.” He took the briefcase from Andy and tossed it to the men beside him.

  “Eh, no need to worry about that. We just had a little problem with the competition. Got a bit noisy.”

  “Nothing Mr. Sokovoj should be concerned about, I hope,” the man replied. His skin was flawless, the implants on his face top?tier, and his long branded hat screamed money.

  The men beside him opened the briefcase. Inside was a data disk containing everything about the operation they’d just shot to hell — a secret raw?velvet factory. Accomplices, distribution, clients… everything. Raw velvet in Willington was simple: strictly illegal on every level, but everyone snorted it. Small secret factories made it on their own, and the big criminal beasts — the ones with factories the size of entire buildings — wiped out the smaller ones. Tonight, they’d done the big boys a favor.

  The man who plugged into the data disk and checked it nodded to the one standing before Andy.

  He smiled. “Mr. Sokovoj is very grateful. The payment has been transferred to your account. Thank you for your service.”

  All the men turned and began boarding the hovercraft, where a luxurious interior glowed behind the open doors.

  “Anytime!” Riven called after them.

  The doors shut, and the flying vehicle lifted off the ground, rising higher and higher until it shot upward like an arrow between the massive buildings, heading for the upper levels.

  They watched it until it vanished from sight.

  Diamond Bar

  –

  Level 6

  The trip down two levels took a while, but they still made it to Finchtown before two in the morning. Border crossings were as easy for Amber as buying a v?cigarette or a newspaper, thanks to her little red box.

  Finchtown on level six — actually, the whole of level six — was a completely different world from the calm district on level eight. Cars still roared through the streets. Nightclubs were in full swing. Music and shouting spilled from bars and taverns. Drunks and homeless people lay on the sidewalks. Hookers lingered outside hotels and clubs. In dark alleys, men beat each other with bare fists.

  Riven parked in the garage, and the metal doors slid shut behind them.

  “Let’s see it,” he said impatiently.

  Big Andy tapped the implant on his forehead, and a hologram projected in front of his face. He tapped through a few menus until a financial transfer appeared — 50,000 WKS. Andy burst out laughing.

  Amber and Riven laughed with him. Riven slapped the steering wheel in excitement.

  “With this we’re buying a new car!” Amber shouted.

  “With this we’re buying a damn zeppelin!” Riven corrected her.

  When they stepped into the familiar bar, Amber was wrapped in the atmosphere she knew so well. A long room with a stage at the end, filled with blue v?cigarette smoke and depressive blues music. Voices and laughter echoed from everywhere. Everything was red and gold with Art Deco patterns. At this hour, the place was alive, packed with people.

  “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been waiting just for you!” Vladimir yelled from the bar, a drink in hand.

  Amber and Riven quickened their pace, still buzzing from the success of the job.

  “Gimme a shot!” Big Andy boomed, staggering toward the bar.

  “Coming right up, honored guests!” the old robo?bartender chimed cheerfully.

  “You!” Vladimir shouted at a boy making out with some woman on one of the big couches. “Get on the stage!”

  The boy smirked at the woman, whispered something to her, and ran after Amber and Riven.

  “Hope you brought a bucket of silk with you, ’cause I’m out,” he said.

  “Watch it, Koi, or you’ll end up like our buddy over there,” Riven shot back, jerking his head toward Vladimir — who clearly heard it, shook his head, and took another sip of his drink.

  Amber rushed into her dressing room. She fixed her hair at the vanity, powdered her face, and headed for the stage, above which blue neon lights formed the shape of a diamond.

  By then, most of the bar had gathered in front of the stage, waiting for her voice. She glanced at Riven behind the drum set. Koi lifted his trumpet. The rest of the band grabbed their instruments.

  When Riven counted them in, wild jazz tore through the bar and the crowd erupted. Amber touched the chrome microphone with one hand and began singing a fierce, passionate song to the rhythm of the jazz. People danced, swayed, spun. Alcohol flowed like water.

  Amber scanned the wild crowd and spotted Vladimir sitting at a table, talking to some man he was trying to set her up with. Big Andy was drinking at the bar and grinned at her.

  She closed her eyes and kept singing. That night, life filled them again. For a moment, they all felt like they had everything they needed — everything that made them human.