The red emergency lights of the Spire flickered like a dying pulse. Silence, heavy and unnatural, had replaced the constant hum of the city's servers. Lian Vance stood in the center of the wreckage, her lungs burning from the ozone-heavy air.
"Kai, status report," she whispered, her voice cracking.
For a terrifying five seconds, there was nothing. Then, a sharp burst of static hissed in her neural-link. "Systems... rebooting. Neural-load at 88%. Lian, the EMP didn't just fry the guards; it signaled every Enforcer drone in a five-mile radius. We have exactly four minutes before the secondary power grid kicks in and locks this floor down."
Lian didn't wait. She grabbed her scorched gear and sprinted toward the service elevator shaft. The main elevators were death traps now. As she moved, she could hear the rhythmic clanking of armored boots echoing from the stairwells.
"They're faster than we thought," Kai noted, his voice stabilizing. "I'm intercepting their local comms. They aren't looking for a thief anymore. The order is 'Extract Neural Asset at any cost'. They don't care about your heart beating, Lian. They only want the chip in your head."
Lian reached the shaft and pried the doors open with a metal rod. Looking down into the endless darkness of the shaft, she felt a surge of vertigo.
"Don't look down. Look at the code," Kai commanded. Suddenly, Lian's vision was overlaid with glowing green trajectories. "I've calculated the magnetic friction of the emergency cables. If you jump and hold the induction brake, we can slide down to the maintenance level."
"And if the brake fails?" Lian asked, already gripping the cold steel cable.
"Then we become a very expensive smear on the basement floor," Kai replied dryly. "Jump. Now."
Lian leaped. The wind screamed past her ears as she plummeted through the dark. Sparks flew from her mechanical glove as it fought the friction. Above her, she saw the flash of muzzle-flares—the Enforcers were firing into the shaft.
She slammed onto the maintenance platform thirty floors below, the impact rattling her teeth. Before she could catch her breath, a red laser dot appeared on her chest.
"Move left!" Kai screamed.
A high-velocity round shattered the pipe next to her head, spraying her with scalding steam. Lian rolled behind a massive ventilation fan, her heart hammering against her ribs.
"Escape is no longer about stealth," Kai said, his tone turning cold. "Initiating combat sub-routines. Lian, give me control of your right arm. We're fighting our way out."
Lian closed her eyes and let the cold, digital presence of Kai flow into her muscles. She wasn't just a girl from the slums anymore. She was a weapon.