My eyes slid to the wallscreen. Sure as shit, it was my birthday. I hadn’t even noticed. Damn.

  “Not when that guy is you.” I said, and I leaned back on my couch. “What do you want? Did you just call to gloat?”

  “I’ll get to the point… I want you back, Tanner. XCU needs you.”

  I snorted out a laugh. “You’re joking, right? After the way you guys hung me out to dry?”

  “Water under the bridge, Tanner,” Dom said smoothly. “We both know you were good at your job. You just run a little hot, that’s all.”

  “Why didn’t you say that before Brandt fired me?”

  “Well… I didn’t have such a big hole in my roster back then. I’m more interested in the present. I am in current need of experienced men, and I need them now.”

  My eyes narrowed. I was beginning to smell a huge frigging rat. “How’d you know I lost my job at the Complex?”

  “Government is government, Tanner. I heard about what happened there. Tough break.”

  “You didn’t call my supervisor, did you?”

  Dom laughed. The sound was annoying. “I didn’t have to. Come on, Tanner. You know how this works. It’s my job to know everything about my people—even the ones who aren’t mine anymore.”

  I pressed the implant into my cheek harder. “You’ve been spying on me.”

  “Spying is such an ugly word,” Dom said. “I prefer ‘keeping tabs’. For your own safety, of course.”

  “Bullshit,” I spat. “You just can’t stand the thought of not being in control.”

  “Tanner, Tanner, Tanner,” Dom sighed. “Always so paranoid. Look, I’m offering you a chance to come back to the fold. To do some real good in the universe. Are you really going to turn that down?”

  I hesitated, ready to give the implant a shake and end the call. Part of me wanted to tell Dom to fuck off. The other part of me wanted to pay the rent.

  “I’ll think about it,” I said finally. “But I’m not making any promises.”

  “Of course not,” Dom said, with over-exaggerated sincerity. “Take all the time you need. Oh, and Tanner?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did I say happy birthday? This job is your birthday present. What kind of a dick would turn down his only present?”

  “You’re a thoughtful man, Dom,” I said.

  “There’s one more thing… and that thing is called Tina Lazar…”

  “What do you know about Tina?” I asked, instantly feeling heat in my face again. This asshole had his nose way too far up in my business. He’d always been that way. That was one of the reasons I’d quit XCU… or rather, gotten myself fired.

  Dom chuckled. “Oh, maybe you didn’t hear? Your little girlfriend got the boot out of the Complex, too. I guess they didn’t appreciate all your threats and indiscretions.”

  I clenched my jaw, trying to keep my cool. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” Dom said. “I got access to the security camera footage—just for training purposes, mind you. The way you two were all over each other when those spider-things were tearing the place up...”

  “Get to the point, Dom.”

  “Fine, fine. The point is, we’re willing to offer her a job here at XCU, as well. Medical staff position, full time. Good pay, great benefits. The works.”

  I narrowed my eyes, suspicion gnawing at my gut. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch,” Dom said smoothly. “We take care of our own here at XCU. And since you two seem to be a package deal...”

  I snorted. “Right. Because you’re just that generous.”

  “I’m wounded, Tanner. Truly.”

  I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn’t see me. This whole thing stunk to high heaven. Dom wasn’t the type to do anything out of the goodness of his heart. There had to be an angle here, some kind of game he was playing.

  There was no doubt I had a fondness for nurse Tina Lazar. I just hated the idea of some oily bastard taking advantage of that and screwing with both of our lives.

  But still, the thought of Tina out there on her own, struggling to make ends meet... it didn’t sit right with me. She’d been screwed over by the Complex, the same way I’d been. I wouldn’t put it past Dom to put out a few calls on her. To mark her as unhirable—just to get to me.

  “Fine,” I said at last. “I’ll come in for an interview. But only if it means Tina gets the job.”

  “Of course,” Dom said. I could imagine an evil grin spreading wide on his face. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  I hated myself for falling into this trap. But what choice did I have? I couldn’t just leave Tina twisting in the wind. Not just because I was stubborn and picky about where I worked and what I did. Also… things had been terribly dull as a security man. When you worked for XCU, you never could tell what the next day might bring.

  Part of me, if I was going to be honest, kind of wanted to go back and work for that monkey-house.

  “When do you want me there?” I asked.

  “Like… now. Use the back entrance. And Tanner?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t be late.”

  The line went dead, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I stared at the implant phone. There was a sinking feeling in my gut. I knew it was a trap. Dom was up to something extra nasty, something he was hiding.

  I tossed the phone onto the couch. I needed to pull it together. Maybe a shower… I hoped I wasn’t making the next big mistake in my life.

  Stumbling into the bathroom, I noticed my head was pounding. The shower called my name. I cranked the water as hot as it would go—which wasn’t impressive—and stepped in. The water sprayed some of the fuzz off my brain.

  The shower slowly got hotter, until it stung—but in a good way. I felt like it was burning away all the crap that had accumulated in the last week, along with all the blood, sweat and grime on my skin.

  I stood there for a long time, just letting the water do its thing. Eventually, I reached for the soap and started scrubbing. I scrubbed until my skin was pink, until I felt like I’d scraped away that nasty outer layer.

  Knowing I needed to be sharp, I stuck a finger down my throat. It took a few tries, but eventually I felt the familiar lurch in my gut. I heaved and heaved until there was nothing left, until my stomach was empty and my head was clear.

  I rinsed my mouth out with water and spat down the drain. I felt better already. Not great, but better.

  Checking myself in the mirror, I was glad to see I still had a gym rat’s body. I hadn’t grown a gut after only one bad week.

  I padded back into the bedroom and started rummaging through my closet. I needed something to wear, something that would make me look like the badass I was rumored to be.

  My eyes fell on a locked case in the back of the closet. I hadn’t opened it in months, not since I’d left XCU. But with Dom’s words still ringing in my ears, it seemed like the right time.

  Punching in the code, I caused the case to pop open with a hiss. Inside, nestled in black foam, was my old buzzblade. The one I’d carried with me on every single mission, the one that had saved my life more times than I could count.

  The thing was both a tool and a weapon. It looked like a cross between a bowie knife and an electric blade you might use to carve up a turkey. It had carved up its share of things in the past, let me tell you.

  The buzzblade felt good in my hand. It was heavier than I remembered, but it felt like an old friend.

  The charge was a yellow line. Half-power, but I didn’t have time to plug it in now. I thumbed the pad on the end and the blade hummed to life, vibrating so fast it was almost invisible. I could feel the power of it thrumming through my arm, up into my shoulder.

  I grinned. This weapon had saved my ass when things got up-close and personal more than a few times. Even better, it was legal to carry—sort of.

  Slipping the buzzblade back into its sheath, I strapped it on under my clothes. Hell yeah, I was ready.

  I grabbed my key fob and headed for the door. I didn’t know what Dom had in store for me, but I knew both Tina and I needed a job.

  Chapter 4

  I stepped out onto the crumbling sidewalk. It was raining lightly and the sky was gray.

  The city around me was in a similar unpleasant state. Every street was a mess, a far cry from the shining metropolis it had once been. Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of decay. Boarded-up windows, crumbling facades, trash piled up in the gutters.

  And the people. God, the people. They were a sorry lot, the dregs of humanity. All the sharp ones were off working someplace nicer, or they’d left Earth entirely on one of our countless colony ships.

  What was left behind? Mutants, freaks and losers, the ones who couldn’t pass a physical and score a one-way ticket out to the colonies. They huddled in doorways and alleys, their eyes hollow and hungry.

  I kept my head down and my hand on my buzzblade as I walked. I didn’t want any trouble. Not today.

  A hologram jumped out of the sidewalk in front of me, a cute girl with big eyes and a bigger smile.

  “Tired of the grind?” she chirped. “Ready for a fresh start? Sign up now for a one-way ticket to paradise!”

  I swiped at the ad, my hand passing through the flickering light. The ghostly girl vanished.

  My boots crunched on broken glass that littered the street. The buildings became older and meaner as I went, the neighborhoods more dangerous. This was the heart of the city, the place where the forgotten ones lived.

  Strange vehicles whizzed by, their engines whining like wounded animals. I turned a corner and found myself face to face with a group of thugs. They were a rough-looking bunch, all tattoos and scars and bad attitudes. They eyed me up and down, their hands drifting towards the weapons at their belts.

  I didn’t blink. I’d faced worse than this. I let my hand rest on the handle of my buzzblade, the weight of it reassuring against my palm. Guns in the streets of Earth weren’t unknown—but most of them had been rounded up and destroyed years back. That was supposed to end all violence—but humanity had proven resilient. We’d just downshifted back to knives so long they were almost swords.

  “You lost, friend?” one of the thugs asked, his teeth reflecting bright colors from the cracked, animated sidewalks.

  I met his gaze, my eyes cold. “Nope.”

  The thug’s grin faltered. He could see it in my eyes, the fact that I wasn’t afraid. It was obvious I was more than willing to take him and his buddies on if I had to.

  My next step took me straight at him.

  One thing that was nice about a lack of firearms on the streets was that the playing field was less level these days. A punk teen couldn’t just shoot you in the ass and laugh. They had to have some skill to wield a deadly weapon effectively. Being a large, fairly young and very fit man, people usually didn’t mess with me.

  The tough took a step back, his hands held up in a placating gesture. “Hey man, no trouble. Just asking.”

  I nodded. “Good. Keep it that way.”

  A few of his buddies laughed at him. He didn’t like that. When I brushed past him, he slammed his shoulder into mine.

  That was a mistake. He spun halfway around and fell—but he didn’t say shit as he climbed back to his feet. Nobody did.

  I could feel their eyes on my back as I walked away, but I didn’t care. I had bigger fish to fry.

  Making my way through the decaying streets, I got to the oldest part of town. They still had neon signs here, instead of holograms that danced and cooed. The old lights flickered and sputtered overhead.

  I descended into the subway. Here, the stench of urine and desperation assaulted my nostrils. I thumbed for a ticket and stepped aboard. A robot sat at the controls of the train, its metal face impassive. The model was so old, it didn’t even talk to me. Either that, or it had forgotten how.

  After finding a seat in the back, I rode downtown. My hand never strayed far from my buzzblade. Long minutes later, the train lurched to a stop, and I stepped out into the gloom. Coming back up onto the streets, I was close now. An old library building loomed ahead of me like a forgotten tombstone. The building was in ruins, its walls crumbling, and its windows shattered.

  Dom had specified that I was to use the back entrance to XCU. What for? I didn’t know, for sure. It was hidden and generally unused. The reason it existed at all was to allow people to escape the facility if things went… badly during a mission.

  I picked my way through the debris, searching for the secret entrance that would lead me to the station that was hidden underneath this ruin. It was here somewhere, beneath the rubble and the decay. But as I searched, my frustration grew.

  Where the hell was it?

  Kicking at a pile of rubble, I sent chunks of crumbling concrete skittering across the ground. Nothing. I was starting to think that Dom had moved the place and called me in for a prank.

  Leaning against a wall, my mind raced. I had to find that entrance. Tina was counting on me. Hell, my rent payment was about to be declined, and my whole damn world was a mess. I needed this job, despite all my bluster.

  Pushing myself off the wall, I started searching again. My eyes strained in the dim light. Was this all some frigging trick by Dom? I was so sick of his bullshit. Maybe this was his idea of a birthday prank.

  It began to rain lightly again and drops ran off my nose. I was getting more pissed every second.

  The rain soon came down harder, plastering my hair to my skull. I was about to give up and head back to the street when I heard a low growl behind me.

  I spun around, my hand automatically drawing my buzzblade. Two creatures emerged from the shadows, their eyes glowing redly in the dark. Why did so many predators have shining eyes at night?

  They looked like pit bulls, but there was something off about them. Their skin was covered in hard, insectile plates. Their jaws were filled with razor-sharp teeth.

  I knew what they were—biological experiments gone wrong. Alien DNA was spliced into Earth creatures to create the ultimate killing machines, and here they were coming right for me.

  I flicked on my buzzblade. A high-frequency hum filled the air. The creatures lunged, their claws scrabbling on the concrete. Kicking out, I dodged to the side, and managed to avoid those teeth, but somehow I’d wrenched my knee when the weight of the monsters blew past me.

  My blade sliced through the air, and the first creature went down in a spray of blood, its head severed from its body. I kicked again at the second one, but it scrambled and was on me an instant later, jaws snapping at my face. Two-handed, like I was slaying a dragon, I drove my blade into its chest, feeling the vibrations as it sliced through thorny plates, flesh and bone. It worked pretty good.

  The creature let out a gurgling scream and collapsed, its blood pooling on the ground. I stood over it, my chest heaving. My blade dripped mutant gore onto the filthy pavement.

  I tested my left knee and it was sprained all right. If I was taking care of myself, I would be icing it down and keeping it elevated, but that wouldn’t be happening today.

  I’d won the round, but would there be more?

  The rain was a blessing now, washing away the stench of death and muffling any sounds of approach. I moved quickly, my eyes scanning the shadows for any sign of movement.

  That’s when I heard a slow clap behind me. I spun around, my weapon out and ready. It was Dom, stepping out of the shadows with a shit-eating grin on his face.

  “Bravo, Tanner. Bravo.” He was highly amused. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your edge.”

  I glared at him, and I could feel my jaws clenching up. “What the hell is this, Dom? You testing me?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I’m the station chief here. It’s my job.”

  “But, why…?”

  “You said you wanted an interview—good news, you passed the first step. We had to make sure you were still up for the job. Can’t send a man who’s gone soft out to some fucked up colony world, can we?”

  I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face with my fist. But I held myself back. “All right, Chief. Same old funnyman. But you frigging know I can handle myself.”

  “Still got that temper, I see. That’s not so good… but we’re hard-up, so I’m willing to live with it. Come on, let’s go downstairs.”

  Forcing myself to relax, I approached him. My anger was simmering just beneath the surface. This was exactly the kind of bullshit that had made me leave XCU in the first place. The mind games, the manipulation. Dom always had to be in control, always had to have the upper hand.

  But I couldn’t afford to walk away this time. It wasn’t just my rent that wasn’t going to get paid. I felt like I owed it to Tina too, even if she didn’t know it.

  “We moved the back entrance, follow me,” he said, turning on his heel, he strode off into the darkness.

  My instincts were screaming at me to walk away, but the part of me that wasn’t impulsive knew I couldn’t.

  Instead, I followed Dom through the ruins of the old library, my eyes scanning the shadows for any sign of trouble. I didn’t trust him not to play more tricks.

  XCU stood for “Xenothreat Containment Unit.” It was a shady government organization tasked with dealing with alien threats. Since Earth had gone into heavy colonization mode, many decades ago, they’d been throwing ships out into deep space toward habitable exo-planets. They did it several times a year. But some of those ships and the colonies they spawned, well, they ran into certain… problems.

  From Earth, we could tell if a world was habitable or not through modern tech. But the people in charge didn’t want to wait to send out a scout ship to see what the exact situation was. Therefore, when a colonizable planet was identified—we just fired off a ship, fingers crossed.

  Sure, the people in transit would find a living world at the end of their multi-decade journey—that much was almost guaranteed.

  A planet that supported human life, however, generally had a local population of its own to begin with. Sometimes, that life was benign, or even useful—but not always.