Phoenix Phire

Dex glanced up as the lights from another car turned down his driveway, effectively stopping any further discussion. Gene led him around to the front of the house, where they stopped and waited for the vehicle to come to a stop.

"Kendal?" Gene recognized the junky car that his co-worker owned. When the younger man approached, he welcomed him with a smile. "Took you long enough."

Kendal raised his hands in mock surrender. "Ten minutes isn't bad, considering I was at the waterfront with some friends."

Dex waited while Gene briefed Kendal. Perhaps his P.O. hadn't noticed, but Dex caught the lie immediately. Kenji had taken a right when he turned into the driveway. If he were coming from the waterfront, it would have been the other direction. Black shoes and pants with a white t-shirt... Red mud caked the side of one shoe, the same mud that could be found on the backside of his property. 'You're involved with this, you self-righteous prick.'

It was more than an hour later before the squad cars left. They gathered all the evidence they could find and took Dex's statement. Dex blatantly lied when asked whether he'd seen the intruder. Purposefully, he gave a description of a figure dressed in black, one that matched the size and built of Kendal.

"You okay, Kendal?" Gene noticed that his co-work was sweating a bit.

Kendal waved it off. "It's hot in here." He threw a fake smile at Dex. "Bro... Turn on the AC."

"I like it hot." Dex returned the smile; he'd turned off the AC during his deep dive. "Wasn't expecting guests."

Dex walked the two men out to their cars, listening to them make small talk like they were at the beach. "Any follow-up I need to do?"

Kendal glanced at Gene for confirmation before shaking his head. "I've reset your ankle tracker, which will silence the alarm at the station."

Gene opened his car door, pausing to look back at Dex. "Good thing you hadn't started your deep dive yet. That house alarm of yours wouldn't have brought you out of stasis."

Dex didn't have to pretend to be scared shitless. In reality, wiring stasis pods to security and fire alarms were a great idea. However, since Dex's electronic use was limited, he didn't have access to that kind of gear. "I think I'll stick with shorter dives of one or two hours."

Gene nodded in agreement. "Preferably in daylight hours. Next time use the house alarm to summon law enforcement."

Dex's expression told Gene that was never going to happen. "Know the difference in response time between my ankle bracelet and the door alarm?"

Gene laughed and nodded. "I'm guessing it's a lot."

Kendal fist-bumped Dex and opened his car door. "Ride the wave, bro."

Dex faked a smile. "Ride the wave, man." He closed the car door, noting that a black pullover had been tossed onto the floor of the backseat.

"Yep… I'm fucked at 30 percent." Dex waved at the cars as they turned onto the main road. Then, cursing under his breath, he reentered his house and turned on the alarm. "How the fuck was I warned to log off? Did someone hack my pod?"

Shaking his head in confusion, he made his way up the stairs toward the kitchen. Despite his thin appearance, Dex was a self-confessed nervous eater. He made his way toward the kitchen, intent on making something to eat.

"Don't turn on the lights."

Dex felt his heart thud inside of his chest at the brief sentence. In most cases, he would have jumped at being startled suddenly. In this case, his blood ran cold as his face broke out in a cold sweat. I'm dead, he thought to himself.

"Don't just stand there; close those blackout curtains." The voice spoke again; it was soft and calm but distinctly electronic. The intruder was using a voice synthesizer.

Dex nodded and walked toward the window. The figure stood motionlessly in the corner, waiting for him to comply with the demands. Then, unexpectedly, the young hacker took two long strides toward the window and, with a loud bang, sent glass flying outward as he leaped through it.

Dex covered his face with both arms before the impact, overbalanced he landed awkwardly on his driveway four meters below. Although he landed feet first, his body impacted the gravel immediately after, knocking the wind out of him.

"The hell are you doing?" The black-dressed figure moved to the broken window as Dex staggered to his feet. "I'm not the bad guy here, Dextron!"

Dex gained his feet, noticing that the figure didn't appear to have a gun. Instead of running, he retreated several steps while trying to regain his breath. "The cops just left! My alarm going off will bring them straight back."

The figure nodded in agreement and took out a small device that looked like a remote control. The beeping of his house alarm stopped a few seconds later. "Didn't think you'd jump out the window. Young people today are so unpredictable."

"Shit…" Dex was finally able to take a decent breath. The intruder had overridden his alarm in seconds, an impossible feat, even with his 2nd gen system. Unless… "You were hacking into my alarm while the police were here."

"I was," the intruder admitted. "What you gonna do, Dextron? You can scurry off into the woods or come back inside so we can figure out how to keep you below 40 percent."

Dex relaxed considerably at her words. The figure was definitely not law enforcement. "We both know I'm probably past that already."

The figure nodded in agreement. "These are corporate hacks; you need a different set of rules."

Despite misgivings, Dex found himself walking back to his front door while considering the entry points to his home. By the time he walked up the stairs leading to his loft, the black-out shades had been closed, and the light turned on. The intruder was waiting for him; arms crossed like an impatient parent. "I know how you got in."

"Do you?" The intruder's synthetic voice couldn't show amusement, but it lingered in words.

"My bathroom window is small, barely two by two feet. I wouldn't fit through, but you certainly could." Dex had already noted that the intruder was somewhat small; the observation made him feel less threatened. Invalid reasoning since anyone could use a gun or knife. "I deactivated the alarm when the police arrived; that's when you entered."

"Think so?" The figure moved toward the pod, running a hand over the top of it. "I can trace my ICE activation anywhere, but somehow you were able to block me."

"Was I?" Dex smiled grimly before noticing that both his hands felt somewhat warm. A quick glance showed him that they were covered in blood. "Shit…" His vision clouded suddenly as the floor rose up to slam against his face.

"Hey!" A voice spoke softly as the sound of footsteps approached him. "Really?"

Whatever the figure said after that was lost when Dex's world turned completely black.

The sound of a heavy object landing on the floor made Dex sit up. An undetermined amount of time had passed, during which he'd been moved to the bed and bandaged up. "Hey! Don't mess with my pod!"

The pod was opened, and the 'S' seat had been removed. A figure stood up and peeked over the open door. "You're an impressive piece of work, Dex!" A pretty face smiled at the shocked look on his face. "You did something to the outer panels of this pod!"

Dex nodded, closing his mouth at the sight of a female hacker. Despite the bandages on his hands, his short walk to the pod was pain-free. "You must be Quicksilver?"

The woman had removed her mask and voice synthesizer. She had a short blond ponytail tied high on her head and looked like she could walk onto any college campus and fit in instantly as a student. "Official introductions then? I'm Quicksilver; ride the wave, little brother."

Dex shook the hand she offered over the top of the lid. "I'm Dextron; ride the wave." Up close, she was even more impressive, a nerd girl combined with rare beauty. And of course, I fainted in front of her, he thought with a depressing sigh. "Thanks for not opening the outer panels."

Quicksilver smiled slightly while waiting for him to walk around the pod. "I started to but then noticed that you had somehow doctored them."

"Yeah… I used the coating from an old stealth fighter to hide its signal."

The blond's smile widened considerably. "Serious? A fucking stealth pod? That rocks, bro!"

Dex felt his mood improve somewhat. "It interrupts the signal from the DoD satellite."

Quicksilver nodded to herself while she pieced together the clues. "You must have jerry-rigged some sort of method for riding?"

"I used the ankle bracelet's router and hooked it up to a small array that I made from house appliances."

"That's some impressively sexy work, Dextron." She ducked into the pod and returned a moment later with the capsule's oversized hard drive held in her hands. "I assume you already took a look at this?"

"As much as I could. The interface I made is fundamental." Dex took the hard drive when she handed it to him and walked to the kitchen counter while she exited the pod. "Gladis Corp must be involved. Or at least one of its shell companies."

The woman nodded in agreement. "Let's brainstorm what we know. But first, I gotta ask. How did you end up with Trip-7's pod?"