Maddox shook his head and pulled out a small reinforced case. He flipped it open with a magnetic lever, revealing a sleek chrome device. Completely seamless. Whatever it was, it looked expensive.
“This,” Maddox finally said, lifting it up, “is what gets us into their system.”
I stepped closer, eyeing the device. “Looks fancy. POM tech?”
Maddox nodded. “Prototype. Straight from R&D. Hooks into a network’s internal defenses, mimics system credentials, and feeds back false data.” He set it down carefully.
“Sounds too good to be true.”
He grunted. “Almost. Needs to be within fifty feet to work, and the Den has a Faraday cage around the whole thing—no wireless signals in or out. We’ll have to get it inside.”
“I’m assuming they don’t like letting in tech they don’t recognize?” I asked.
“Ding ding ding. You really are a genius.” Cy’s voice was dripping with sarcasm as he circled around me. I ignored him.
The device was small—really no larger than a tube of lip gloss—and perfectly sealed. I took it from Maddox and rolled it between my fingers.
“DITA?”
She chimed in my ear, “Quite impressive anti-encryption software, but it will still need guidance to find the right data.”
I knew what we had to do.
“I’m going in with you,” I said.
“Like hell you are. If I can’t bring Maddox, I’m definitely not bringing you.” Cy crossed his arms.
“You can’t bring Maddox?”
Cy shook his head. “Kitsune are already jumpy with a corpo sniffing around, let alone two.”
“I thought you were one of them?”
Finally, Cy looked surprised. “How do you figure that?”
I grabbed his face and pulsed my Flux just enough. The circuits beneath his skin glowed.
“This isn’t legal work. I used to see similar mods back at Hellfire. A lot of the Kitsune had outdated tech like this. Not this extensive, though. When I first saw them, I thought they werejust those Flux tattoos that were trendy a few years back. But this…”
He shook me off but didn’t contradict me. “I’m shimin now. Got a few contacts, but that might just get us in the door, nothing more. No special treatment. Only I can get in.”
“Just tell them I’m a whore who gets off on a little excitement. They’ll ignore me.”
“Is that not what you are?” Cy asked innocently.
My Flux spiked—and he knew it, grinning. But that little device was still in my hand, and I wanted to play.
“You’ll bring me in, and I’ll manage the device.”
“Don’t need you. I can handle it.”
“Oh, so you can run a search protocol and monitor the data upload all while keeping them from getting suspicious? By yourself?”
He shifted, and Maddox let out a grunt. “Yeah, that’s my job,” Cy said.
“So you’ll risk getting the data when you could just take me with you? While you’re charming them with yourwinningpersonality, I’ll be robbing them blind.”
“It is a better plan,” Maddox chimed in.
