Page 163 of Light Leech

“I noticed that when we first came in,” she said. “That light isn’t for show and there weren’t any viable mods that pulsed while being charged.”

“What if he has something under his clothes? And there are plenty of subdermal mods.”

“That’s what I thought. After he took you out I wanted a closer look to see what kind of mods we might be up against.” She glared at Zhou. “This shac probably thought me brushing up on him was sincere.”

Zhou smirked. “You’ve been programmed to do worse. Tell me, when did you break out of the cognitive shell?”

“All it took was Reef to push me far enough to break it. I assume that was your doing, wasn’t it?”

“Finish the seat thing first,” I said.

She looked back at me. “I got a closer look at his seat. I didn’t need to search for hidden mods. He was one. We used those same charging docks for my concert backup dancers. Reef didn’t want people to know we were using artificial humans. While they had the lumens to employ real people, Anton didn’t trust humans to do the job. Those docks are meant to appear like your standard mod and tech chargers, but there is a distinct film to that light that penetrates deep into the user’s body.”

I looked at Zhou’s seat and pushed him aside to see where the light was emanating. “I don’t see any difference.”

She pointed at her eyes. “Most people can’t see the difference. They programmed my neurospace to see the difference because, after all, they were my dancers.”

I nodded, continuing to stare at the seat despite no apparent sign of concern. I had almost forgotten how common mod and tech chagrin was through beds and chairs. Since gaining my Bite, all my light came through teeth and–from what I understood–my Gui. With the other Imps with me all the time, it was easy to forget what had become a necessity for so many people. “Why do I never see you dock to charge your tech?”

She shrugged. “I never have.”

We both looked at Zhou, though Naoma was the one to speak. “Back to the cognitive block, barrier, or whatever you want to call it. Did you place that on me?”

“I heard you talking to her about her past on the way to the lake,” I said.

“Oh, Naoma, your history is such a mess.” He laughed. It lacked the confidence he had spoken with before his palace came crashing down. “How did Nichley lead you here?”

I almost said, “He didn’t,” but figured it was best to withhold as much as possible. Even if he survived, I was sure he could relay some information to the other Beacons.

Logic hit me.

I hopped into my neurospace.

Petya: I need to place a neuronet block on Zhou.

Ralia: Baaaabe! You actually got him! Ooooh, I’m so proud of you two.

Petya: Now.

Ralia: I plug. Give me a moment to get it to you. Initiate a contact exchange and it’ll keep him out.

Petya: For how long?

Ralia: How long do you want? Are you killing him?

Petya: Not sure if we can. He’s an and.

Ralia: Zeg, really? Well, I’ll give you one with an infinite lock, but we can unlock it back here if you need. If he’s an and, he should have access to the building’s network so we can shut off all the security and such.

Petya: You want me to drag him back there?

Ralia: Finish your interrogation, then we can chat.

Petya: Pulse.

Ralia: Check your notifications. It should be in there.

Petya: Beef2-brothel-bash The zeg is that?