Bidder Four offered control codes to a private weather modification array—still active and currently cloud-seeding North Africa.
And Bidder Five just sent a picture of a cocktail napkin with the letters IOU written on it by hand.
I blinked once. Then twice.
“Jesus,” Kelly said. “I’ve seen black-market organ deals that felt more aboveboard.”
I had not. Regardless, the wealthy men were on their way back in their boats and helicopters, to see who’d won.
“We ready?” Kelly asked, as I activated the microthermal sealant field and watched the polymer casing fuse shut around the modified receiver. The bio-reactive gel shimmered once, confirming synaptic continuity. A low chime followed as the handshake protocol initialized—contact plate active, vitals nominal.
I used a precision weld to close the housing seam. No margin for error. No access point for failure.
Then I tapped in the final lockout sequence—triple-encrypted, bio-bound, non-reversible.
I held the device aloft for a final diagnostic sweep—everything green. No vibration. No heat bleed. No latency spikes.
“Yes,” I said, straightening up.
I held the device steady as Kelly opened his mouth, tongue out like a child demanding communion. I placed the capsule beneath it—carefully, precisely—letting it settle into the cradleof his mouth, nestled against vascular tissue, where the bio-reactive gel could maintain constant contact.
The capsule shimmered faintly. Sync: light green. No spark, no flare. Just quiet confirmation: connection achieved.
Kelly smirked around it, tongue flexing slightly. “Tastes like victory.”
“Keep it there,” I told him, already turning back to my console. “It’s keyed to you now.”
Then the phone in my pocket buzzed—but I already knew what the message was.
Get on deck with the girl. Now.From Voss’s executive assistant.
“It’s time,” I told Kelly, standing and winding my fingers into his hair.
55 /SIRENA
I wasbusy ordering what I hoped was hundreds of thousands of dollars in engine damage when the nearest screens all started blinking.
Aft elevator,they instructed me.
I had no idea where the fuck aft was, but Nex got me.
Up one deck, three hundred feet forward, then take a right,the screen read, and I blew it a kiss before telling the workers around me with my mind they hadn’t seen me.
The elevator was waiting for me. I got into it, and it went up two floors before opening on Nex—who was, for some reason, holding Kelly’s head. I grabbed him and hugged him as his shout of, “Tits! Finally!” got muffled by my chest.
“I’m a fellow agent!” I protested, laughing, when I pulled him up.
“I’ve spent a week trapped in a jar! I deserve some motorboat!” he protested right back at me.
“It’s good to see you too, Kelly,” I told him with a grin.
“Y’all look like you’ve really made some bad life choices,” he said, grinning too.
He had a point. “Are we really going up there like this?” I asked Nex. By the stylish mirrors in the elevator, I could see thatmy hair looked like I’d been in a tornado, and there was engine grease on my white dress’s hem.
“Everyone’s already prepared their transfers. No one’s backing out now,” he assured me, as the door in front of us opened.
I fell into quiescence just in time.
