Arrow pulls up a different view—nodes and connections, a web of lines.
“In the last eight months,” he says, “Luka’s posted four ‘interference’ bounties. Not just on you. On other ‘problems’ too. Smaller fry. Journalist in Denver. Activist in Miami. White-hat hacker in Prague. Those bounties went up, stayed up for a while, then went quiet. The public threads got archived. We’re still trying to track what happened to those people.”
Ice trickles down my spine.
“And us?” I ask.
Arrow zooms in.
Three nodes.
We’ve seen them before.
VANTAGE – 15 BTC
MASK-01 – 20 BTC
MASK-01 + ASSET – 35 BTC
Except.
Now the third figure isn’t 35 anymore.
It’s60 BTC.
My stomach drops.
“He doubled it?” I say, voice flat.
“Almost,” Ozzy says. “He topped it up overnight. It pinged our watcher scripts. That’s why you’re getting the early call.”
“Why?” I demand. “We’ve been off-grid for days. We haven’t hit one of his clients since the last op. What triggered the bump?”
Dean leans forward.
“We think he got a better look at the asset,” he says.
For a second I don’t understand.
Then the penny drops.
“This is because they saw Lark,” I say, jaw going tight.
“Partly,” Dean admits. “But mostly because you’re not just an interference pattern now. You’re a story. A symbol.” His gaze is steady on mine. “The vigilante who won’t stay bought. The girlwho helps him on the inside. Crews like Luka’s hate that more than anything. It encourages other people to stand up. He’s paying extra to make an example of you both.”
Under the table, my hand curls into a fist.
I force it to unclench.
“Question,” I say tightly. “On a scale of one to catastrophic, how bad is it that the bounty board is now offering enough crypto to buy a small island for the pleasure of shooting us in the face?”
Ozzy whistles low. “Sixty BTC will draw attention. You’re not going to just get hobbyists anymore. You’re going to getspecialistschecking the listing on their lunch break.”
“Hitmen from all over,” Arrow says bluntly. “Different people, different methods. Some will be idiots with a gun and a dream. Some will be very,verygood.”
I glance toward the doorway.
I can hear Lark in the kitchen.
