Caleb moved fast, weaving through the dimly lit backstreets, keeping his head down and his pace steady. The chip in his pocket felt heavier with every step. Elias hadn't been the type to keep anything without a reason. Whatever was on that chip, it had been worth risking everything to protect. Caleb needed a safe place to check it, somewhere off-grid. Somewhere no one would expect him to be.
He doubled back twice, making sure he wasn't being followed. The city hummed around him, neon lights flickering against wet pavement, the distant thrum of traffic blending with the occasional burst of laughter from the night crowd. Caleb ignored it all. He had a destination in mind.
Fifteen minutes later, he slipped into a rundown cyber café on the outskirts of the district. It was a relic, a place no one used anymore, its aging terminals barely operational. That made it perfect. He picked a booth in the back, one where the cameras were either broken or covered in dust, and pulled the chip from his pocket.
Sliding it into a secured reader, he watched as the screen flickered to life. Lines of encrypted code scrolled past. Caleb's fingers moved fast, bypassing basic security layers. Elias had been careful, but not careful enough. The lock cracked open, revealing a single file.
A transaction log.
Caleb's eyes narrowed as he scanned the entries. The amounts were staggering, but it wasn't the money that caught his attention. It was the names. Familiar ones. Syndicate members. Outside players. And one name that made his pulse stutter.
Dante.
Caleb's breath slowed. Elias hadn't just been moving time credits for himself. He had been tracking something bigger. A network of hidden transactions that linked back to Dante himself. If this was real, then Elias hadn't been the only one playing both sides.
And now, Caleb was holding the proof.