“Will you be fine if I step back?” the nurse asked Enez as she seated her in front of Officer Heynes’s office desk.

“Yeah, I think so,” Enez replied with a subtle nod. “How far back, though?”

“I’ll still be on this side of the door. In case of a medical emergency.”

“Works for me.” Enez placed a hand on the nurse’s shoulder, unsure if the motion was entirely appropriate but feel-ing the need to express her gratitude in some way beyond saying “Thanks”. Which, granted, she did also do.

“Happy to help,” the nurse replied and proceeded to take her place at the back corner of the office. The door slid open in the same moment, greeting Enez with the sight of Officer Heynes entering.

What she didn’t expect was Officer Walters entering a mere two seconds later. What’s the bitch doing here? I thought this’d be a one-on-one deal. Had there been a smile on Enez’s face, it would have faded the instant she laid eyes on the traitor.

But she didn’t voice her disapproval just yet. She made a decision in the moment to torture them in her own way for a minute. To drive a point home. The officers took a seat each on the opposite side of the desk, and Officer Heynes crossed his hands and leaned forward.

“Would you mind showing Officer Walters here what you showed me earlier?” he inquired. That Enez didn’t mind. She produced a subtle nod and turned her head to show what-ever was of so much importance that another officer needed to see it. She wasn’t entirely sure herself what exactly was on her neck. There was a mirror in the infirmary room she could have used, but she hadn’t felt like looking at herself since the incident at DanariTek that’d brought her here.

Officer Walters’s eyes widened. “Oh fuck,” she whisper-ed. “That’s—”

“Yep,” Officer Heynes muttered, interrupting her. “Our murderer is breaking the pattern.”

Murderer? Breaking the pattern? Was Enez supposed to die? And if so, why had whoever had placed the mark on her neck decided not to kill her? A wave of anxiety washed over her as she pondered these questions. Questions she’d likely never get an answer to.

“And you feel confident about that conclusion based on a sample size of three?” Officer Walters inquired with an intent stare in Officer Heynes’s direction.

“You got a better idea?” Heynes asked in response.

“Well, no,” Walters muttered with a shrug. “But are you sure Miss Harady having the mark means that she was meant to be a target?”

Heynes nodded. “Positive.”

“Well, I trust your judgment more than my own,” Walters surrendered.

Turning his attention back to Enez, Heynes then asked: “Now, Miss Harady… How did you receive that mark?”

Enez didn’t respond. She simply stared at Heynes, doing her best not to smirk. How long would it take him to catch on to what she was trying to say with her silence? She was eager to find out.

She counted a good twenty seconds before Heynes spoke again. “Miss Harady, please cooperate,” he muttered im-patiently.

Enez’s way of responding to his plea was to nod in Walters’s direction, so as to silently say “I’ll talk when she leaves”. Heynes let out a sigh of frustration and gestured for Walters to leave the room. She didn’t seem to object, as if she knew this would be the outcome. Enez’s gaze followed Walters with unparalleled intent and glee. Once she was on the other side of the door, Enez returned her gaze to Heynes.

“Now can you answer the question?” he asked.

“Sure,” Enez chirped and proceeded to recount the events. “Sadly, I don’t have much in the way of a testimony. I was blacked out when it happened.”

“Blacked out?” Heynes repeated curiously. “Like in a coma?”

“That’s one way to put it. Though I’m pretty sure the bastard hacked my neural link. I remember something sharp go-ing into my head just before blacking out, like a needle. Woke up with a bitch of a headache and spent the next thirty minutes vomiting my guts out.”

Heynes nodded. He looked like he was contemplating the logistics of a neural link hack. Even Enez knew that wasn’t something that happened on the daily. Everything should tech-nically be hackable, but neural links were secure enough that hacking one required some very sophisticated wizardry. And equally sophisticated equipment, the kind one would need to be at least a millionaire to afford.

“Do you at least remember when it happened?”

“Sometime last night.”

“Miss Harady’s neural logs show anything out of the ordinary?” Heynes asked the nurse in the back.

“I haven’t looked yet. Wasn’t aware her neural link had been hacked,” the nurse hollered back.

“You didn’t tell your nurse you were hacked?” Heynes growled at Enez.

She shrugged. “Didn’t seem important.”

“I do suggest you let her peruse your neural logs. It could give us a lead. At this point, every little bit helps.”

“Noted,” Enez replied with a nod.

“On that same note, where was your nurse at the time?”

“Somewhere else. Left the room just before the hacker attacked.” As if they had been waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Had been lurking in the shadows for some time. Enez was every bit as uncomfortable with the idea as Heynes looked to be.

“You said you were told I’d know what the mark means,” Heynes proceeded to inquire.

Enez nodded and explained: “Something I think the hacker said to me while they were working their magic. Like a lucid dream.”

“Don’t suppose you managed to get a good look at the assailant?”

“No. They came at me at an angle where they managed to stay hidden. No identifiable marks on the parts of their body I did see. Namely, the hands.”

“Either way, I have a pretty good idea as to who it was. And you having her mark adds another layer to the case.”

“Her?!” Enez repeated in shock. “Are you saying I was attacked by—”

She was interrupted by what felt like an electrical surge in her head. Her vision blurred. An attack of nausea struck her. She keeled over in her seat, feeling like she was going to faint but managing to keep herself conscious. “Fuck,” she grunted, one of her hands clasping the side of her head.

“What’s wrong?” Heynes asked, standing up.

“Just a neural glitch. It’ll pass shortly.”

The nurse rushed over. “Need me to do anything?” she asked Enez in a voice that conveyed more panic than her choice of occupation would have allowed her.

“Nah. Just gotta give it a few seconds.”

“Are you sure?”

Enez wanted to respond, but suddenly, she felt like her lips wouldn’t move no matter how much she willed them to. Like they were numb. The sensation slowly crept its way to the rest of her body, and in the seconds she convinced the effects of the glitch would subside, her world instead faded to black once more.