Page 30 of GlitchBorn Heart

“Exactly,” Ash agrees. “And now his old system tweaks at the exact same second the anomaly surge hits. What else was affected?”

“As of right now, I only know of DreamNet. I was in it, dropped out like a hot brick.”

Silence, then that mischievous tone. “Because you were in it where? RedRoom or what, dude? Was it hot? I need deets...”

My knuckles whiten around the throttle. “Moving on.” I give him a warning.

“I’ll get it out of you later.” He makes a mental note for future harassment. “That means whatever happened tonight didn’t just flare magic,” he adds quietly. “It destroyed things, voided them...powerful.”

“So, GameNet wasn’t just disrupted. It was attacked and voided,” I think out loud. “Some anomaly has some sort of power that can destroy entire systems, and they can’t control it.”

The lab is just ahead, white spires jutting into the dark clouds, a stark contrast to the bright street behind me.

“Stay where you are for now; I’ll need you at the lab when curfew breaks. We’ll handle it.”

“Copy that, boss,” he replies, lighter but only half-joking. “Just like you ‘handled it’ last time? Look, Bro, you can’t keep the whole world under control, and if this is who I think it is...you’re way in over your head.”

I kill the engine in one fluid motion, boots hitting the pavement with purpose. Above me, the VikkCorp logo, a jagged, silver “V” bisected by a pulse of red lightning, glows from the glass wall like an unblinking eye, reminding everyone that nothing here is private. Not even your thoughts...and especially not your dreams.

Sterile, white light from the lobby washes the ground as I enter the front doors, pulling off my gloves.

GOOD EVENING DR. RYUDON

WE ARE EXPECTING YOU

The AI Bot at the front desk greets me cold and unfeeling.

I continue talking to Ash and ignore it. “On second thought, maybe you better sit this one out.” I kill the call with a flick of my finger, the comm going dead as I approach the security panel for the lab.

A text comes over my DataLINK:

Ashhole (ASH): Sit this one out?

Ashhole (ASH): Yeah, like that’s ever worked

Ashhole (ASH): See you after curfew. I’ll use my code

Ashhole (ASH): Hugs and Kisses

I roll my eyes and enter the lab. Ready for the hunt to begin.

12

TheLab

Playlist: Megacorp - Dark Smoke Signal

Kael

The VikkCorp AI Research Division isn’t a lab so much as a cathedral built from glass. It hums with a low, constant thrum from servers hidden behind the walls, their vibrations gently rocking you, if you stand still too long. It’s the sound of a city running through machines. My machines.

Holo-tracks lace the ceiling in geometric lines, asleep for now but always waiting to spill light and data when we give the command. When they do activate, I’m able to bring code to life in the form of walking, talking, almost sentient beings.

The walls are banks of transparent screens, seamless sheets of crystal that bend and curve with the lab’s architecture. They shift seamlessly between cascading data streams, neural projections, city-surveillance feeds, and DreamNet diagnostics. All of it responsive to the smallest flick of my fingers. No keyboards. No delays. Thought becomes command from the console in the center.

At the heart of the research lab, suspended from steel cables is the city grid, glowing with a view of each sector and the streets within. I glance up to see two anomalies flickering crimson red. Unstable but alive. They pulse brightly, their light bleeding into the surrounding area, refusing to obey.

I stop to stare at them, analyzing my next move.