Kira Vex's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

Kira left the grove with the chip warm in her pocket and a plan already forming. She would find Voss before the gangs did. But back in her room, a battered radio on her shelf hissed to life on its own. A voice cut through the static. It was Voss. He knew her name. He knew where she slept. "Don't trust the people around you," he said. "They've already bought someone close to you. Come alone. Boarded warehouse, rusted doors. I'll be inside." The signal died. Kira stood very still. Her sister's face came to mind, then her mother's. She pushed both away. She took the long route. Two blocks from the warehouse, she spotted it — a small camera bolted to a concrete wall, red light blinking slow. That camera had no business in this dead stretch. Someone was paying to watch this street. Voss wasn't lying about being hunted. He might not be lying about the rest. Kira slipped through the rusted door. Voss sat in the dark, thinner than his bounty photos, eyes sharp. "You came alone," he said. "Good. Because whoever told your family you run errands? They sold your route this morning." Kira's stomach dropped. The job was still alive. But now the leak was inside her own house.