Someone grabbed Kade, a new man, in a respirator but no armor.

The man was fitting a respirator over Kade’s head, then patting him down, yelling something through the mask and over the sound of the ringing alarm.

“What?”

What’s happening?

The sound of the alarm ended abruptly.

“Are you hurt?” the man yelled again.

“Feng,” Kade said, muffled through the mask over his head. Then Feng was up, a submachine gun in his hand. There was blood splattered on his face, blood on his shirt, blood on his pants.

“Get back,” Feng said.

Kade struggled to take in the situation. There were seven of the new force. Six with guns, plus the one leaning over him. They wore masks and sleek black fighting armor, less bulky than the bounty hunters, but even more deadly-looking. They had silenced automatic weapons in their hands, but none were pointed at him.

Every one of them had a sphere of static around him. Distortion on the Nexus frequencies. Jamming, but on a local scale.

Shielding, he realized. They’re running Nexus, but they’re shielding themselves.

“Get back,” Feng repeated, pointing his gun at the man over Kade.

“We’re here to help,” the medic said.

Kade? Feng sent.

“Who are you?” Kade asked.

“Activate my avatar,” Shiva said. “I want to talk to him.”

The medic stepped back from him.

Then a hologram appeared in the middle of the room, projected by a fist-sized spider-like robot beneath it.

The figure was old, Indian, long white hair, dressed in a simple white garment.

“Kade,” said a projected voice. “We’re not your enemies. We’re friends.”

“What do you want?” Kade asked.

“I want you to come with me,” the hologram said.

“Who are you?” Kade asked.

“I’m someone who needs your help,” it replied.

“My help?”

“Yes,” the hologram said. “To save the world.”

“Not interested,” Feng spoke from the side of the room.

The hologram turned in his direction. “Are you sure?” The image of the man raised an eyebrow. Then he turned back to Kade. “It seems like you’ve been trying quite hard to do that already. I applaud what you’re doing. We can do it together.”

Kade felt his hackles rise. He knew why someone would want his help. There was only one reason he could think of.

“I’m not interested,” he said.

The holographic figure smiled. “But you don’t deny it, do you? You’ve been hacking into brains, haven’t you? Saving the world one criminal at a time? There are more than a million people running Nexus now, did you know? All because of you. There are thousands more each day. And you have a back door into each of those minds. That’s a great power for good, Kade. I can help you use that power.”