The female mercenary collects their weapons while her partner maintains his aim. Once the last rifle is locked away, she runs an EMP scanner over each of them. When the device reaches Kane, he forces a normal breath as it glides over his chest.
“Clear,” she announces.
With a nod, the mercenaries step aside, opening a path toward the enemy line. Kane moves forward, and the elevator at their side hisses open.
A familiar figure steps out. His stomach drops.
Viper enters the lobby in Natural Order robes, white and flowing to the floor. His usual heap of weapons is gone. So is his cyberware—replaced by surgical scars carving pale lines across his skin.
Kane stares. Standing here, facing him in white, something cold presses in his ribs.
“You actually showed,” Viper says, expression unreadable. His gaze slides past his former leader, landing on the others.
Wren and Pixie glare in unison. Echo shakes her head, and Coda simply crosses his arms and stares.
An emotion flickers across Viper’s face, too fast to clock. Kane pushes it aside.
“Where’s Athena?” he grits out.
Viper’s jaw ticks. He nods down the hall by the elevator. “We’ve secured a room. This way.”
Without a word, he follows Viper, his lieutenants at his heels, while the remaining robed members wait in the lobby.
Their steps echo against ceramic tile, the sharp scent of paint and glue lingering in the air. With each stride, floor-level lights flick on.
The silence breaks when Viper stops at a door labeled “Conference Room 1.” He waves a hand over the security panel.
A single beep, and the doors slide open.
Kane draws a slow breath.
At the head of a long table sits Athena, her name pulsing in HUD despite all the years.
Her blue eyes lock onto his, mouth curving into a grin. Likethe rest of Natural Order, she wears a robe. Only hers gleams with intricate gold-lit piping. Her hair is still blond, tied into a ponytail to reveal faint markings at her temples where her former implants once rested.
Four robed members flank her. Kane’s HUD tags each face: Giselle, Titus, Nora, and Charles, all matching the intel Coda pulled from the Veil.
“Hello, Kane,” Athena drawls. “Or should I call youBaronnow that we’re on opposite sides?”
His fingers curl to a fist.
“And Echo, still in the game? Really?”
Echo’s pulse flares in his overlay, though she says nothing.
“We’re here to negotiate.” Kane steps forward. “Not reminisce.”
Laughter bursts from Athena. “Negotiate? In what world does the Chrome Baronnegotiate?” She leans in. “Come on, Kane. What’s the real reason you dragged us here?”
He shrugs. “Times change. People change.”
“Do they? Or is this just aploy?” She tilts her head. “We trained under the same man, remember? I know everything Duke taught you, and he mastered the long game.”
The urge to strip his uncle’s name from Athena’s mouth burns inside Kane. Thankfully, his self-control wins out.
“We came here to talk. That’s it,” he explains.
Athena tsks. “I always knew that bleeding heart of yours would be your downfall, Kane. But fine then. Let’s carve out the terms of your surrender.”