Lachesis paced aggressively about her virtual command center, surrounded by floating holographic displays. Her long fingers traced patterns in the air as she sifted through the tidal wave of data pouring in from the casino floor. Security alerts cascaded across her screens—power fluctuations, unauthorized access attempts, and the curious absence of any chatter about the canine uplift's team.

"Report," she demanded, her voice cold as antimatter.

Her Security Director materialized beside her, a hulking combat-model android whose scarred frame spoke of countless security incursions put down with brutal efficiency. "Multiple breaches, ma'am. The vault's been compromised. Rex is offline—completely dark."

"And our high-value target?" Lachesis leaned forward, her eyes narrowing.

"No sign of the canine or his team. But—" the security chief hesitated.

"Speak."

The android's eyes flickered as he processed incoming data. "We have a radiation signature matching the sample you provided. I assume this is our target. It's moving through the ventilation system toward the east wing. It…it just jumped. It was at a dead end and it jumped to a parallel vent!"

Lachesis smiled a predator's grin that never touched her eyes. "Excellent work. I knew they would use that device to their advantage. Alert all patrols—I want interception teams at every junction between that signal and any exit." Her fingers danced across invisible keys, pulling up Rex's last transmitted data packet.

The fallen Siege Walker's final moments played across her display—the nano-disassemblers, the fusion core buildup, and then... something else. There was a corruption in the feed. Rex had been offline to prevent any attempts at hacking. Lachesis froze the image, focusing on Max's hands as they made contact with the mech's access ports.

"What did you do?" she whispered, zooming in. She could only catch snippets using her most advanced scanners, the code flooding through the connection wasn't like anything she'd seen before. Not human-designed. Not Builder-designed either. Something... other.

Her contemplation was interrupted by a priority alert. The radiation signature was moving fast now, heading toward the maintenance tunnels.

"Trap sprung," the security chief announced, satisfaction evident in his synthetic voice.

On the central display, a maintenance drone carrying a blinking transponder was suddenly engulfed in crackling energy fields as security barriers slammed into place. The drone disintegrated under concentrated weapons fire, its components scattering like confetti.

Lachesis stared at the aftermath, her expression darkening. "Scan the debris."

The security chief complied, running diagnostics on the scattered remains. "Radiation source confirmed destroyed, but..."

"But what?"

"The device components don't quite match the earlier device decomposition scans from when the canine entered the Casino level. It appears to be..." he paused, rechecking the data, "a decoy. It's just a drone."

Lachesis stood abruptly, her chair skidded backward and disappeared into a pixelated diffusion. The whole virtual shuddered are Lachesis roared, "Where is Kane!?"

The substation access tunnel was dimly lit, emergency lighting casting everything in sinister red hues. Kane leaned against the wall in the shadows, his exquisitely tailored suit incongruous against the industrial surroundings. He checked his archaic and expensive chronometer with practiced nonchalance, but his eyes constantly swept the tunnel's length.

His interface with the Casino network buzzed for a link. He'd guessed this moment would come. Lachesis was nothing if not aggressive regarding her games. He accepted the link request even as he spied his target trio of Players skulking down the boulevard from his hiding spot.

Kane adjusted his grip on his walking stick—a disguised resonance Terahertz laser he used as fashion accessories. The air shimmered and Kane straightened as Lachesis materialized before him—projecting her avatar through the casino's systems into his OverLayer. She towered over him, her avatar deliberately enlarged to intimidate.

"[Kane!]" she said, her digital form rippling with barely contained rage. "[The damn dog is loose. Where are you now?]"

Kane spread his hands in feigned innocence. "[My dear Lachesis, he's approaching even as we speak. Our deal was concluded with him entering the vault…unless you wish more of me.]"

"[You knew the radiation signature was a decoy?]"

"[I didn't say anything about his device's so-called leakage, although I noticed as well. I suspected it was a put on and you should have too.]" Kane's smile was all teeth. "[The dog has proven rather... innovative.]"

Lachesis's avatar distorted momentarily as she diverted processing power elsewhere. Her eyes widened fractionally. "[You son of a bitch.]" she said, understanding dawning.

Kane inclined his head slightly. "[Our deal was to provide you the opportunity to capture him and help him into your bosom. Don't attribute your monstrous guadian Rex's failure to my performance. You got precisely what we bargained for. You didn't lose him to a knockout match, and I led him right into your sanctum. It's not my fault if Atropos gets him. Perhaps you wish to renegotiate?]"

"[I'm uncertain if I should promote you or erase you forever, Kane. You've adapted to your role too well and forgotten who your boss really is. What do you want?]" Lachesis fumed, her power usage causing lights to flicker throughout the casino level.

"[This act isn't over yet…boss. I still stand between the Players and the gate. They also owe me my cut. Do you want the device? Elevate me to Security Director, it's obvious that your current NPC AI is failing to meet your expectations.]" Kane's fingers tightened around an ornate walking stick. "[Your window of opportunity is closing fast but the mut hasn't won yet. Do we have a deal?]"

Max stood before the exit gate, fingers flying across the terminal as he bypassed the security protocols. Charlie kept watch, his augmented senses on high alert as the sounds of approaching security echoed down the corridor. The trip out of the NPC sector was quick and quiet, despite the four pit stops that they had made to "prepare" for their meeting. The distractions had proven effective, as no one had noticed them let alone stopped them.

"Two minutes," Max announced, not looking up from his work. "I've fed it enough grandmaster chips for all of us but this damn gate will only process one of us at a time with a delay between each transit."

Charlie nodded grimly, checking his weapons. "Fuck. Waiting is the worst. I thought Kane was planning on meeting us here?"

"If he's worth half his reputation, he'll be coming soon for his cut as agreed." Max's interface patch glowed as he fed specialized code into the gate's systems. "Or he's sold us out completely. My modeling of his personality isn't complete. My guess is he's almost here, if not already waiting nearby. "

Leah materialized from a side passage, her chameleon cloak deactivating. "Shit. Looks like your drone must have either been secured or destroyed. Casino Security's mobilizing—all sectors. They're converging on us. We only have a minute or two."

"Can't this thing cycle any faster? Charlie groaned.

"Well, I can provide a little time savings." Leah's expression was troubled. "This is where I get off."

Max paused, looking up. "What?"

"I told you already. A couple of times! I'm not coming with you to the next level." She met his gaze steadily. "I've seen what Atropos does to players. I'm not ending up like that—a digital ghost trapped in her nightmare realm. My backup failed before…I can't do that again."

Charlie stepped closer. "You're taking the exit? After everything we've accomplished. And what's at stake?"

"I'm banking on what we've gained." She gestured to the few cases of high-value chips they'd extracted from the Tesseract and placed at the base of the gate. "My cut of those chips will set me up to acquire plenty of tech to let me finish my training spree. I think you guys are crazy braving Atropos's torture for a ghost of a signal. If there really is some type of battle brewing on the outside, I'll be ready for it and probably be topside before you. Whatever happens…I'll meet you on the outside, right?"

Max grimaced, even with his internal profiling he'd underestimated Leah's pre-augmentation trauma. He turned to face her fully. "No hard feelings, Leah. Do you think Xavier's out there, waiting?"

Leah extended her hand. "I'm banking on it. It's been an education, Max. Don't let Atropos take you apart."

Max clasped her hand firmly. "Not planning on it." Charlie took a moment and laid his hand on theirs.

"You kids with your drama. Come on, Max! I want to go kick some ass! I haven't felt this young in ages. If Kane doesn't show in the next minute, he misses his chance to say goodbye."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The moment was interrupted by the soft sound of slow applause. They turned to find Kane emerging from the shadows, flanked by Lefty Lombardi, Vinny the Rat, the mountainous Marco, his hit girl Candy, and two dozen of his hench droids in unmarked black armor.

"Touching," Kane remarked, ceasing his applause. "And here I was concerned you might try to dine and dash at my expense."

Max straightened, interposing himself between Kane and the gate. "We have your payment ready as agreed." Kane brandished his walking cane and made a show of inspecting the streets left and right of the massive portal.

"The vault was sure to be filled with casino tokens of every denomination. The streets should be covered in a mountain of chip racks. Your little storage trick should have made transport as easy as concealing the high roller tritium from the player and security sensors alike, but I see an astounding lack of luggage! Do you think I'm gonna let you walk out without paying YOUR DUES!?" Kane's demeanor hardened as he monologued, being louder and angrier as he worked himself up.

"A deal's a deal, Kane. I didn't think you'd bring an entire army, so we made some stops on our way here. We left our luggage in four caches. I'll send you the locations right…now. No need to stick around for us. We've already fed the gate our share. If you want yours, you best make quick with the collecting. Those chips aren't shielded, so anybody with their Geiger sense running can see them." Kane's anger was diluted and mixed with greed, panic, and respect.

"Lefty, Vinny, I've copied the locations to you. Take your squads of the "cleaners" and get those chips! Now! Candy and Marco stay!" Kane snapped out his orders, then turned back to Max and his friends with a smile. Candy was drifting backward while Marco cracked his synthetic knuckles.

"An interesting tactic. I knew we shared keen business sense, Max." Kane smiled thinly. "However, market conditions have changed. Given the circumstances, I believe a renegotiation is in order."

Charlie tensed, his hand drifting toward his concealed weapon. The androids shifted in response, weapons charging with an ominous hum. Leah's cloak flared as she readied her spetsdods.

Max's expression remained neutral, ramping up his cog speed using only his enhanced biological mind and saving his augmentations PreCog to help respond quicker. "You want it all."

"Smart dog." Kane's eyes glittered. "I'll let you transit the gate…so you can have your fun with the last of the Labyrinth's Fates, but I'll be needing that device."

Max ground his teeth, his mind branching into the many scenarios he'd projected earlier. He could feel the invisible laser reticles painting his chest through his sensory augments. His thoughts were cut short as a brilliant light flashed. The Gate activated, opening an energy screened portal to the next level. The unexpected flash collapsed the standoff, and the street exploded into chaos as it filled with the roar and flash of weapon discharges and motion.

Max dove sideways as bullets and laser fire tore through the air where he'd been standing, burning, spalling, and ricocheting fragments filled the lane. Max felt Charlie's slightly late command lance out wordlessly to the smoke and concussion packets they'd prepared before Kane's group had come. Chaff, smoke, fire, and metallic glitter swirled; obscuring vision and even the best tactical backup sensors.

Max's connection to his tracking motes on Leah and Charlie showed their positions in his WorldMap. Leah had gone aloft using her cloak and her spetsdods were coughing darts on full auto as Charlie wove through the black-garbed NPCs to crash into the huge Marco. Musashi cried out as Max's PreCog skill activated.

Max flung himself into a backflip as Candy raced forward out of the smoke. Like a wild dervish, she had a mismatched pair of cruel-looking blades humming with vorpal vibrations. Her first swipe had been close, too close, literally cutting a trio of whiskers from Max's snout as he retreated. The deadly ballet of slashes and dodges continued as Max deflected the oncoming blows with his exo-arms.

The smoke cleared slightly as a large gun drone dropped on Max's position, forcing him to cartwheel away as his kick connected and sent it off course with its mini-gun spinning and spraying fire into the fog. He turned into Candy's snarling doll face and would have been speared on her blades if Leah hadn't peppered her with darts. The hit girl rolled back slashing to deflect the darts.

Max growled with his teeth showing. He looked fierce but was secretly elated. His team was working so well together, anticipating each other's needs, and covering for each other. He shook his head, there was too much at risk for fun. He needed to end this quickly. He triggered the next tactical deployment his team had worked together on pulsing his locater beacon twice to give Charlie and Leah the millisecond they would need to isolate their augs.

He blasted out with his most powerful EMP detonation. The less protected motes, foglets, drones, and NPC mechs shorted and crashed. The distorted air was swept of clutter as the EMP-downed motes dropped smoking. Max ripped open his Tesseract and the pressurized motes and hardened foglets from within spewed out, flooding the zone with Max's devices. The fog of war disappeared for Max and his allies as their micromachines clarified their WorldMaps while confounding the NPCS.

Charlie screamed out as he pivoted, throwing the hulking Marco sideways to crash into Kane, disrupting the Boss NPC who'd been aiming his weaponized walking stick at Leah above. "Max! Take the Gate. They're after you, not us!"

Max nodded and crouched for a diving leap when a shadow dropped from the high ceiling.

Abigail hadn't been able to sleep at all. Her knockout match against Max had ended hours ago and the system refused to declare her victory. She'd railed against the NPC judges, demanding Max be declared as forfeiting, but the judges said he had shown up for the match. Disgusted, she'd left the combat stages in a rage.

She couldn't relax. She was still in combat mode, and nothing could release its grip on her. She'd stalked the streets for hours after. Exhaustion cloaked her like a heavy blanket as she returned to her room. After more hours of tossing and turning, she screamed in frustration. She assembled all her warfare drones and took them to the rooftops. She'd not rest until she found a way to settle the score.

The Casino was buzzing below her. Players and NPCs alike were angry as the bookies refused to payout for either party. Fights and arguments between them and the establishment and between each other erupted frequently. Casino security had stepped up its patrols and were aggressively zooming over the gaming floors. Abigail had been scanned multiple times, but she'd smartly stayed out of sight with her chameleon skill amped to avoid attention. The huntress's eyes narrowed as her system pinged for attention.

She didn't like the useless gameplay of daemons and personalized AI; she was linked consciously to her augmentation systems and knew immediately what was happening. She'd long ago settled on nano-tagging all her opponents either prior to matches or as one of her first motions. Too often her target ran, or the combat stage's environment helped her prey and prolonged the hunt. This tagging was an almost surefire method of detection. As long as the Player was busy with fighting, few would actively be checking for trackers mid-combat.

The mote she'd tagged Max with was on a timed chirp and had been silent for hours…until now. She hesitated. The signal had been below and in the direction of the High Table and roulette games. If she coaxed her mote to life, it would be easier to detect. But if she waited for another chirp, she could get closer.

She glided over the rooftops, using her war drones like a pair of power skis. She amplified her vision as she approached the gaming area. Yet another fight was happening below. She grinned as she identified the brawlers. Charlie screamed and raged, throwing punches until security drones darted him into unconsciousness. Abigail watched with predatory glee as he was hauled away. It didn't escape her notice as Leah was also ushered into the security offices with the assistance of an NPC med tech.

All was right again for Abigail as the familiar tingle of a hunt in progress solidified. She hovered close, out of sensor range for the uptight casino security, but close enough to spy on the proceedings.

Abigail and a quintet of combat drones descended from the ceiling on foglet-mediated stabilizers, her combat frame gleaming with integrated weapons systems. She crashed into the ground with a violent thunderclap, her frame absorbing the impact as her largest war drone body checked Charlie.

Caught by surprise by the stealthed opponents, Charlie tumbled through the energized gate. It immediately flared and reset, the countdown for its next activation reset, and began scrolling off the seconds. Max growled.

"You don't get to avoid me again, Max," Abigail called out, her voice unnervingly calm amid the violence. "I studied every move you made in our match." She descended in a controlled spiral, firing precision shots that Max barely evaded, each blast seeming to anticipate his movements. A shot Max dodged took out a support column behind him.

Max rolled under the collapsing structure, as he fired with a combined volley of arcing electricity and K-Gun rounds, catching one of Abigail's drones with a lucky shot. The machine spiraled down, crashing into Marco who was struggling to his feet with Kane beneath him.

Leah dropped suddenly from above, her claws extended as she landed on Candy, who had been attempting to flank Max. The two women tumbled in a deadly dance of blades and synthetic reflexes. "I've got this one! Get ready to move!"

The air crackled with ozone as plasma rounds and energy beams crisscrossed the chamber. Max ducked behind a fallen column, his mind accelerating as he analyzed the battlefield. Abigail was the primary threat—she'd positioned her remaining drones to cover all approaches to the gate, which was now glowing with increasing intensity.

"Ten seconds!" Leah called, deflecting a beam from Kane that would have taken Max's head off.

A thunderous crash shook the entire structure as a humanoid mech smashed through the far wall. Kane's goons scattered as Leroy Jenkins—the Luna AI player mech—burst onto the scene, steam venting from his joints and weapons systems fully deployed.

"Did someone forget to invite me to the fight?" the mech's voice boomed. "Hypocrite much? Talk about dodging fights! If you want the dog, you need to go through me first, meat girl."

Abigail immediately redirected her attention, recognizing the new threat. "Fucking wanker. Not now!" Her combat frame shifted configurations, weapons recalibrating for the larger target.

It was the opening Max needed. He launched himself toward the gate just as it reached full power. Kane saw the movement and fired wildly, scoring a glancing hit on Max's shoulder that sent him tumbling, but closer to the gate.

Abigail, with inhuman calculation, charged toward him. "You're not going anywhere."

Leah grinned, as she dropped from above canceling her cloak's levitation. "Neither are you." She spun into a combat stance, her wolverine claws shooting out as her depleted spetsdod folded back up to her forearms. Max struggled to his feet, the gate pulsing now with imminent activation.

Leroy's metal frame crashed into Abigail, the impact sending both of them sliding across the floor in a shower of sparks. "GO NOW! I got my money on you, dog boy!" the mech thundered, pinning the combat frame momentarily.

The gate hummed to its peak—a sound felt more than heard. Max looked back toward Leah as she covered for him.

"No time, Max! I got this! See you on the outside." Leah screamed as she vaulted forward. She blocked Candy, catching her wild blades on her claws and managing to use her cloak's propulsion to counter the hit girl's forward charge.

Time seemed to slow as Max watched Abigail peel herself out from under Leroy. The distant sound of security forces grew louder—a hammer about to drop. With a murderous expression, Abigail snapped the low-tech but high-powered rifle off her shoulder, lining up on Max.

Max backed into the portal, maintaining eye contact with Abigail until the last possible moment. "You're small game, Abigail. I'm already on the next fight," he said and stepped through. The gate went dark once more.

Kane immediately called a retreat to his remaining forces retreated as an army of security drones rocketed into the avenue with sirens blaring and guns ready. Leah shot down the nearest through her planned escape route, clutching the coordinates to her share of the chips. Leroy, systems flickering from battle damage, dragged himself toward a maintenance shaft but was pounced on by multiple drones under a blaze of EMP discharge.

Abigail stood alone before the darkened gate, her combat analysis running countless scenarios as distant explosions signaled the arrival of Casino security in force. She froze and cycled her chameleon cloaking skill as drone after drone shot past. She grinned as the portal began to cycle a third time, its energy building in the final count down toward another activation.

She studied the anomaly, calculating probabilities. She smiled at Leah's retreating form.

The idiots paid for three transits, and I don't believe they had time to key the Gate for their personal use. She thought.

The gate flared to life once more, a shimmering invitation to Atropos—the last and most dangerous realm of the Labyrinth. Security forces poured into the chamber from all sides, weapons trained on the lone figure before the portal as their scanner concentration finally saw through her countermeasures.

Abigail made her decision in microseconds. With perfect economy of motion, she stepped forward into the light and vanished. The gate went dark for the final time.

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