Kieran Voss's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Kieran climbed out of the sublevel with the drive in his pocket. He found a quiet corner against an old brick wall and opened the files on a burner tablet. The text was garbage. Layered corporate encryption, nothing he could crack alone. He pressed his palm to the cold bricks and felt the dead end through his skin. He needed someone who lived in stolen code. He thought of the rumors — a wrecked server room deep in the district, racks still humming, neon tags blinking over tangled cable. People said a fixer worked out of there, and met clients somewhere safer. That somewhere was a cramped pawn shop with barred glass and crowded cases. Kieran went in at dusk. He named the encryption format. The clerk slid a paper number across the counter and told him the price: a cut of whatever the files unlocked. Kieran agreed. He handed over a copy of the drive. He waited two blocks away, watching the street, counting his risk. An hour later his burner buzzed. A single file came back — clean, readable, a corporate memo naming the factory district seizure as a planned forgery, signed by names he knew. He had his leverage. He also had a new debt to a stranger who now held a copy of every stolen file, and a fixer's price climbing somewhere behind him. Kieran pocketed the tablet and started walking. The cooperative had a chance. So did everyone hunting him.