Kieran Voss's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Kieran left the graveyard knowing his name was already moving through the district. The fixer would hear it before noon. A named client was a priced client. He had to reach the fixer first, before the files were sold to the highest corporate bidder. He found the fixer at the edge of an empty lot, seated at a weathered bench scattered with notebooks and loose parts. A duffel sat open at his feet, stacks of transaction cards lined up inside. The fixer didn't look up. "You're late," he said. "Three buyers called this morning. Your name's the hot ticket." Kieran set his own offer on the bench: every credit he could move without tripping a corporate flag. The fixer counted in silence, then slid a single drive across the wood. "This buys the original. Copies stay with me. Next time someone offers more, I take it." Kieran pocketed the drive. It was not a victory. It was a lease on borrowed time. He walked out past a chain-link fence bent flat into the weeds, its mesh sprawled like something that had given up. His name was loose. His safe ground was gone. But the files in his coat were his again, for now — and the cooperative still had a chance, if he moved faster than the next bidder.