Encrypted Touch

Trigger code

They shouldn't have let Vian lead.

The route through the lower tunnels was too clean. Too quiet.

By the time the trap sprang, Syyr was already yelling.

"MOVE!"

Gunfire ricocheted off the curved tunnel walls. Drones dropped from the ceiling like metallic wasps. Jarek grabbed Syyr and shoved him behind a wall as bullets screamed past.

"You trust that guy again, I swear to god-"

"Save the lecture!"

Vian was gone. Vanished the second the shooting started.

"Coward!" Syyr roared, slamming his fist against the wall.

"I warned you," Echo hissed.
"He led them to us."

"We need an exit!" Jarek shouted.

Syyr pulled up the schematics on his ocular HUD.
A crawl tunnel behind the wall panel.

He turned.

"It's tight."

"So are most bad decisions."

They crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, crawling through rusted metal and barely-breathable heat. Sparks flew every few seconds as old wiring arced above them.

And then it happened.

The panel above buckled-Kade's drone crashing down behind them.

Syyr spun, blasted it with a pulse round-
The recoil knocked him back-
His body slammed against Jarek's in the crawlspace, chest to chest, breath to breath.

Tight. Too tight.

The world stilled.

Syyr could feel Jarek's breath catch.

"You okay?" Jarek asked, voice low. Rough.

"Fine," Syyr murmured, not moving.

Their faces were inches apart.

"We have to keep moving," Jarek said, not moving either.

"Right."

But neither of them moved.

A long pause. And then-

Jarek kissed him.

It was fast. Fierce. The kind of kiss that came from months of repressed tension and too many close calls. It hit Syyr like static to the spine-hot, electric, and dangerous.

He kissed back.

Only for a second.

Until-

"What the hell are we doing?" Syyr pulled away, breath ragged.

"I don't-" Jarek looked away, flushed, furious at himself. "Forget it."

"You kissed me."

"You didn't stop me."

Silence.

"Do it again," Echo whispered, amused.

Syyr shoved the voice away, shoved himself forward, crawling faster.

Behind him, Jarek stayed quiet.

⸻

They emerged in an abandoned train station, rain pouring in through shattered skylights.

Syyr didn't look back.
Didn't speak.

Jarek didn't either.

But the space between them had changed-charged now. Raw.

They'd touched something they couldn't untouch.

And it was only going to get worse.