Humming, stunning current pushes against the back of my neck, freezing me in place.

Ajax’s blade knows too well how many times my temper has turned an oh-ten night into an oh-twenty. White aura simmers above my skin like a life fire in the stairwell while I turn to lock eyes with him. The blade’s tip burns a red line into my neck. I know he’ll cut me down if I so much as think of breaking for the surface and trying to rescue Jolie. I just don’t know how.

His head shakes only once as our eyes meet, reading to my core. “I can’t let you do that, Mars.”

All I needed to see was his footwork. My hands reply for me. Accelerated by sudden, protective fury, I bat his stunning blade away from my throat and lunge back up the steps. Duck the instant jerk he makes to correct course and cut me down. His blade sweeps over my head, severing a tuft of crimson hair. Pivoting under the falling strands, I drive an open palm into his elbow at a fraction of my usual strength. Any other night I’d snap the joint in half and let him sleep it off over a week. But I can’t do that tonight.

And he knows. Taking the reprimanding hit and turning it into a graceful, evasive spiral, Ajax seizes the staircase itself in his elemental control and warps the step above me, shunting out a steel beam to strike my shin. The stumble it causes is all the distraction he needs to shape his metal blade into whip form to catch me as I fall.

It’s his first and only mistake. He thinks I’m stupid enough to turn my back. To run from a fight and keep heading up. To hell with that. Rather than trip forward and let my momentum keep pushing me up the stairs, I slam my hands against the ground and push off hard, flipping back down towards Ajax in a kinetic cyclone.

He’s slow to reshape his blade to lethal form. Fractionally slower than I’m used to. Or am I faster? Instead of cutting me in half, the sword jams tip-first against my chest right as I throw a haymaker for his head, holding back a micrometer from impact. A gunshot of releasing ki cracks the air. His hair kicks back from the concussive force. Blade tickling my sternum as it draws the thinnest trickle of blood.

I breathe out through my nose. Once.

“Out. Of. My. Way.”

He’s nothing if not controlled. “You go up there, and Jolie will be dead before you leave the sublevel. Trust in her, Mars.”

“You say that because she’s not your sister,” I snarl. Teeth gritted. My fingers curl above an open palm as I force a megaton of aura into my second hand. Wild hair whips from side to side across my shoulders. “Vex changed the game. I’m ending it.”

“No Shimano will kill an innocent civilian. Jolie is-”

My fingers clench a micrometer closer in threat. The blade snaps up to my jugular.

“Last chance.” I almost spit the words.

The hammer of Mori’s revolver draws back with a lethal click. Lightning and water crackle explosively across her other hand. Each points at one of us. “Get a hold of yourselves,” she snaps. The gun raises towards me. “Especially you.”

Ajax seizes the moment. “Mori, listen. Jolie’s safer up there than she is anywhere else. That changes the moment Mars leaves.” His eyes plead his case to her with open honesty. “Just listen.” He rips out his earbud. “Listen to her. Don’t listen to me.”

I shut my ears and focus my ki, preparing to rush back to the lifts. I can make it to the top of the shaft in under half a minute. No amount of Ajax’s bargaining would ever convince me to leave my sister to die. He thinks he’s right to abandon her. I shake my head and let the ki fizzle out of my hand, mentally plotting a course back to the lifts.

Then the only voice that could ever convince me slips into my ear from afar, chewing loudly as she has a habit of doing when concentrating on something else. She says nothing at first because her mouth is full. Swallows with spreadsheet-tuning patience. And then she speaks.

“How about a gamble instead?”

An uncomprehending pause stretches between the five of us. Jolie, Vex, and our standoff triad. Jolie waits full seconds before clearing her throat loudly.

“Well?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Uncomprehending blankness rolls over the channel. “I can genuinely say I wasn’t expecting that,” Vex answers.

“I’m pretending to be a banker, aren’t I?”

She’s got a gun pointed at her head and still she talks on, taking a careful sip of wine. I’d be proud of her if she wasn’t playing with her own life. The glass rattles as it’s set back down. Nervous hands shaking.

“Surely I wouldn’t have made it in such a cutthroat business if I didn’t take a risk or two,” my sister cajoles. “So let’s ante up. I have a theory, you see. That there’s something very volatile and valuable to the interests of Shimano Heavy Industries being kept in that basement of yours. Something like a minor league fighter.”

“Is that so?”

“You’re not a stupid man, Vex. Don’t make the mistake of thinking me one.”

“You thought this farce would stand up to my scrutiny. I will reserve my judgement.”

“Perhaps I wanted to be having this very conversation.”

Vex snorts, amused. Fabric shifts as legs cross. “Continue, then.”

My pulse slows. Ajax’s blade lowers only a fraction of an inch. Blue eyes still locked unwavering against my own. Warning me in their cold-iron silence.

“Shimano Heavy Industries’ penthouse tower is no backstreet drug drop in the Vents. I’m sure you and your ilk are up to a higher caliber of competition than the thugs my allies disposed of in the undercity. My gamble, Vex Shimano, is that you are as prideful as you are intelligent. Do you trust your mercenaries and warriors to stand up to a handful of college kids? Or are you the kind of man to take a hostage and hold her atop your tower like some big bad ape?”

Shimano’s grating reply rakes my ears. “My patience is running thin.”

“Then let me put it simply. Kill me, and my friends will either take your secret, or they’ll take enough evidence away for the major league to put you in a cell for the rest of your life. But capture them?” Jolie clucks her tongue in reprimand.

“We are both pawns for greater forces,” she lies. Cleverly vague. And I doubt Shimano is working alone, anyways. “Capture my friends, and you take bargaining chips for yourself. Impress your patron. Build opportunities. You only sink your own ship and squander potential by choosing to rid yourself of us.”

Vex’s gloved, metal fingers click loudly as they steeple together. “An interesting proposition.”

Jolie waits. Ten silent seconds pass before Vex speaks again.

“You’ve intrigued me. If this gamble is the hill you wish to die on, a gamble it shall be. A little game of our own between the pawns. Your life as the stakes.”

“And if you’re feeling risky for more, I have one more wager to make,” Jolie says.

The most serpentine of Shimano Yor’s seven sons lets out a raspy chuckle. “We’ve only just agreed on the first. Pray tell, what would this one cost me?”

“Only a small sum between friends. Ten million credits says tonight will end in a way you would never predict.”

“Just money?” Vex shrugs. “It seems I overestimated you. My Innovators will take your contribution posthumously. Perhaps I’ll use them to add another floor to the skyscraper, hm?”

“I’d want nothing less.”

Concealed speakers activate and echo up to us from deeper sublevels Mori’s electric devastation couldn’t reach. The familiar four-tone code of a JOY’s powerup comes through first. Metallic scraping comes last. And then, mechanized and filtered to its natural Mecha-classed state, the voice of Vex Shimano makes its presence personally known.

“Gentlemen, I would welcome you to Shimano Heavy Industries, but it seems you’ve already let yourselves in. Wasted time is wasted money. Your destination is on sublevel six, chamber seven. You know the terms. Entertain me. Or die. I don’t really care. I expect you’ll do both, but for the sake of Ms. Mons, I do so hope you have some surprises in store.”