“Drone’s almost here,” Jerry reported in my ear, the edge of panic finally smoothing into relief. “Good job. I might survive.”

  It didn’t take long before the VIP elevator slid open and out stepped Lola, perfectly composed as always, with Iraklis trailing behind her.

  Lola’s outfit was pure corporate precision; Iraklis, on the other hand… well. Hawaii-print T-shirt, suit pants, and socks with sandals. Like he’d gotten dressed during an evacuation drill and just rolled with it. I didn’t even dare comment… mostly because I’d one hundred percent do the same if I were him.

  “I apologize for the wait,” Lola said, dipping her head just enough to be polite without losing her edge. “We didn’t expect you.” She gestured toward the far end of the hall. “Let’s take the service elevator. The capsule can’t fit in a regular one.”

  “Ah,” Lieutenant Edris cut in, stopping her mid-step. “That won’t be necessary. We’re here only for the chip.” He flicked his eyes toward one of his men, who hefted a bulky briefcase like it contained a thousand years old whiskey. “We’ll take the chip and be out of your hair.” Then he turned to Damon, his mouth twitching toward a smirk. “UEE will be—” He didn’t finish, but the jab landed anyway.

  Pearl, at the same time…

  The moment the words [Take the chip] hit her ears, Pearl bolted. Her e-girl heels barely hit the floor twice before she was at the window, wrenching it open just enough to slip the small, disguised courier pouch inside. The decoy chip—same casing, same serial markings as Jerry’s—was in her palm a second later.

  She dropped into her station, the hum of her new rig, thanks to Chief Lola, filling the small maintenance room; her new favorite place. Fingers flew over the keys, booting her decryption suite.

  “No, no, no…” she muttered as the progress bar blinked red. [Encryption mismatch]. Some Nathanco flavor Jerry hadn’t warned her about… double-wrapped with adaptive hash cycling.

  “Alright, plan B…” She reached under the desk, yanking out a matte-black crate the size of a small dog. Not connected to any building network, it was just her, GPUs, and a lot of heat sinks. Didn’t have time to properly set up. She jammed the chip into the rig’s slot, hit [Brute force], and watched the numbers start to scream upward. The cooling fans spun so hard they sounded like a swarm of angry hornets.

  Back to Charlie…

  “Damon, of course you can come with us,” I said, all false sweetness, trying to sound more like Riker. “We used to be friends before… that incident.”

  He stiffened. “Don’t count on that. This is official Nathanco business. No old time’s sake.” His tone was pure boardroom peacock, as if he were Nathan himself.

  What happened to my old friend?

  “In that case,” I said, letting my smile go razor-thin, “I need to ask you to kindly wait here, Nathanco representative.” Out of the corner of my eye, Riker was silently hyping me up like a sports coach, hands waving in dramatic arcs. “Then, dear UEE, let’s get the microwaved chip! Lola, lead the way. Iraklis, would you kindly offer Mr. Representative some company?”

  Iraklis gave a quick nod, but Damon just shook his head and gestured at me like I was the crazy one. “I need to make sure the procedure is correct! Nathan—”

  Edris didn’t even let him finish. “I have to ask you to stop. If you weren’t here, we’d already be done. Please show us the way. Come, Jackson. Others wait here.” He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his team. “I know you’re new, so be civil. Remember the training; we’re on duty.”

  I caught Riker’s eye again, and both of us had to bite down hard on our laughter. His mouth was twitching so badly I had to turn away before I lost it completely.

  The fearless UEE… reduced to obedient schoolkids by Lieutenant Edris.

  Lola strode to the elevator and tapped the call button. The display blinked Top Floor. She shook her head. “Oh no! It is at the top.”

  Damn. She was worse at stalling than I was.

  But the UEE crew didn’t seem to notice. I turned to Riker, aiming for maximum distraction. “Well, I’m afraid this one’s going to be far too plain for you, Riker.”

  Jerry, report!

  Nothing. Silence. At least checked, he can’t read minds.

  “Naturally,” Riker drawled, giving the bland metal elevator doors a look of pure disappointment, “nothing could quite compare to the world-renowned elevators of Riker’s Tower.” He tapped the steel as if it had offended him. “But—ah—your personal elevator could be a contender for second place. As I’ve always said, a few tasteful decorations—”

  “I am not putting a rack of weapons in an elevator,” I cut in, adding just enough bite to make him grin.

  Jackson, the UEE enforcer standing to my right, let out a tiny snort; immediately murdered by a glare from Lieutenant Edris that could’ve withered crops.

  Riker sighed dramatically, tilting his head as though I’d just rejected a priceless Renaissance masterpiece. “Alas… then you’ll miss the chance for a truly… killer first impression.” I had nothing for a response, and he smirked as if he'd won.

  Finally, the elevator dinged open. We stepped in, all business on the surface, me praying under my breath.

  Pearl at the same time…

  The moment the rig chirped, Pearl yanked the decrypted data onto a clean drive, sealed the decoy chip, and sprinted. The elevator wasn’t coming fast enough, not with whatever lazy program it was running, so she plugged a fingertip drive into the control panel and rewrote its speed parameters on the fly.

  The doors hissed open like they were afraid of her. She slapped the [Down] button, and the car jolted, shooting downward at three times the usual speed.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  When it stopped, she was already moving… out the doors, down the hall, straight toward the capsule room like she’d been born here.

  Back to Charlie…

  “She’s on it. Stall again.” Jerry cut in, his voice half-worried, half-hopeful.

  Damn, that was cutting it close.

  “Lola, can we key my biometrics while we’re here?” I asked innocently. “So next time the UEE needs something—”

  Edris shut that down instantly. “I apologize, but we’re really in a hurry.”

  Not good.

  The elevator arrived on the capsule floor. Lola pointed down a long hallway. “This way.”

  The room ahead was spacious but looked abandoned mid-project… ten capsules lined the walls, all shrouded in white dust covers. A few had open panels with tools scattered nearby, like the techs had simply walked away mid-repair.

  Well, we moved here today, so they probably did. Through the archway on the far side, I could see a nearly identical room, with more capsules lurking in the shadows.

  “She’s putting it in! She needs time!” Jerry’s voice was back in full panic mode.

  Movement caught my eye… Pearl, hunched over one of the capsules in the next room, moving like her hands were wired straight into the machine’s guts. She was fast, but not fast enough.

  I needed a distraction.

  “Oh, that’s right!” I smacked my forehead as if the idea had just struck. “We never offered our enforcers any refreshments! We’ve got the whole party downstairs.”

  Jackson perked up immediately. “We do like—”

  “No,” Edris cut in flatly. “There’s an anti-corruption rule. We can’t accept anything.”

  “Uhh…” Jackson raised a tentative hand. The glare Edris shot him could’ve leveled a mountain. The hand slowly sank back down. “Not even… an autograph?” Jackson mumbled.

  Edris pinched the bridge of his nose as I actually giggle and winked at Jackson. “I don’t know. That’s never come up. After we check the chip, we can consider one.”

  “Sure!” I said brightly, stepping toward Pearl. “There’s my technician now, preparing it for you. Ah, Livia! Thank you!”

  “Preparing?” Edris pushed past me in two long strides. He flipped the capsule lid open, saw the chip, and exhaled like a man who’d just found a lost paycheck. “I apologize. These chips are dangerous… unstable. Destroying it is the only solution.”

  “Jackson!”

  Jackson snapped into motion, tugging on a blast shield and pulling out tweezers. I glanced at Pearl, who was wearing… uh, was that e-girl makeup and outfit?

  Charlie, don’t question other people’s wardrobe choices. Remember yours!

  …And stop talking about yourself in the third person!

  “Sorry, wanted to be helpful,” I said, turning to Pearl. “Livia, you can leave.”

  She just stood there, frozen.

  Edris actually smiled… which, in his case, was somehow scarier. “Apologies for my rashness, Livie. You’re not in any trouble.”

  “Oh…” Pearl’s shoulders eased, and she slipped out of the room like she’d just dodged a boss fight.

  After a minute of meticulous poking and scanning, Jackson finally nodded. “This is the chip; all checks out. There is…” He glanced at his wrist display, brow furrowing. “…some discrepancies, but that’s expected when the chip’s been fried. This one’ll never make trouble again.”

  Edris let out a long sigh, the kind that shed suspicion like a coat. His entire posture shifted; suddenly approachable, almost friendly. “Apologies. I couldn’t be sure, but you were more than helpful.”

  We headed back toward the elevator, where Riker was leaning casually against the wall like he’d been posing for a painting. “One thing,” Edris added as the doors slid open. “Nathan, the one behind Damon, has a long reach.” His gaze flicked to Riker. “But I see you have… things handled.”

  “Ah, Lieutenant Edris Vann,” Riker said warmly, projecting the voice of a man welcoming an old friend on opening night. “But of course I can lend a hand to a dame in her hour of need… what sort of gentleman would I be otherwise?”

  As we rode down, I caught a glimpse of Lola, sweating more than I’d ever seen, which, for Lola, meant she’d actually done more than her usual everything. “Nathanco,” Riker went on, voice dropping a fraction, “is opposing not only her venture…” His eyes slid toward me, the smile already curling back into place. “…but even mine.”

  He turned fully, grin widening into something almost triumphant. “Our fates, my dear Miss Charlie,” he declared, “are now… beautifully intertwined.”

  I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms. “Because you made it so.”

  He just grinned, saying nothing, as the doors slid open.

  “—friends!” Damon’s voice cut through the air like a thrown dagger, full of accusation.

  There was Ian’s voice saying something back, but Jackson, apparently immune to tension, tapped my shoulder. “Sword Queen? Would it be possible…” He glanced at Edris, who rolled his eyes and gave the smallest nod. “…to get an autograph?”

  Without warning, he produced a trading card. My trading card. First time I’d ever seen one, and somehow it made me both flattered and vaguely concerned about what Dmitry did. Still, I took the offered pen and scrawled my name across it without hesitation.

  “Keep it safe,” I said, handing it back. “Might be worth something after I overthrow an empire or two.”

  Lieutenant Edris gathered his enforcers the way a weary parent collects kids after a chaotic field trip, herding them toward the exit with clipped thank-yous over his shoulder. Their boots clicked in uneven rhythm down the hall until the sound faded entirely.

  Meanwhile, Damon and Ian’s “discussion” had leveled up to a full-blown verbal brawl. They were nose-to-nose now, gesturing like rival street performers fighting over the same patch of sidewalk. Somewhere in the blast radius, Lunaris sat near Ian like a bemused referee.

  I slipped up beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Why are you here?” I murmured.

  She blinked at me, then tipped her head toward Ian. “Moral support. Wian asked me.”

  I frowned. “Why would he ask you, though?”

  Lunaris’ smile turned wicked. “Earlier he tried to tell me something about boobs, but I borrowed a long pole from Lisa and bonked him every time.” Her eyes glittered with smug joy of righteous victory. “Later I learned that was Rob’s advice.”

  I laughed just as Ian shouted something about Damon’s mother’s… extracurricular activities. Deciding to ignore that entirely, I tilted my head. “Okay… but why would he ask Rob? I mean, the reason to ask… that?” A sudden blush crept up Lunaris’ cheeks… even the tips of her ears went red.

  “No way…” I whispered. “He asked you out?”

  She nodded.

  “And you said yes?!”

  The nod turned microscopic.

  “I… uh, okay. Do you know what happened?” I nodded toward Ian.

  “No, Mr. Baldie said it was urgent, so we just came here, and Wian… uh… started yelling.”

  “Baldie?” I blinked, going through all the names in my memory. “Who…?”

  “Dmitry.”

  I almost laughed. “He’s touchy about that. Okay, be moral support. I’ll ask someone else. Thank you.” She nodded back at me. Then I straightened, scanning the room. Riker was back at the secretary’s desk, no doubt narrating my evening in villainess-flavored poetry. Lucas stood near Ian, shifting from foot to foot, occasionally throwing in a mild “helpful” comment that got lost under the incoming artillery of insults.

  Lola was on a bench with Iraklis, speaking in that low, taut voice she used when something had almost gone wrong. I wandered over and joined them. “What happened? Should I stop it?”

  Iraklis shook his head, calm as a whiskey barrel. “Ian revealed that a shady group pressured Damon to ban you. It’s an internal feud in Nathan’s… let’s say ‘network.’ Lucas has backing from someone from the same network. Well… you have.”

  “Ah, young punk. Sure… And instead of offering legal advice, you’re letting them just shout at each other…” I trailed off, glancing back at the combatants… now accusing each other about length. Touchy subject, as mine is now zero. “Ah. So… Ring of Smiling People?”

  “Exactly,” Lola said, still tense. “We… survived. UEE wasn’t what I expected.”

  “Edris was scary, but I liked Jackson,” I nodded. “Still… next time we won’t cut it that close, yeah?”

  Lola groaned. “I wanted to use the service elevator. It’s slower. But…” She just shook her head.

  Silence spread like a cold draft through the room. I turned and saw Damon and Ian locked in a mutual glare that could probably curdle milk.

  I rose, brushed imaginary dust from my cosplay skirt, and strode toward them.

  Time for an adult to discipline the children.

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