Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 131: – Old Routes, New Terms

Chapter 131: – Old Routes, New Terms

Lucas approached slowly, boots crunching over shattered gravel. The wind dragged long ribbons of dust across the ground, catching on the folds of Kai’s coat.

Kai didn’t stand.

He just stirred the pot once more, then ladled steaming broth into a chipped cup and offered it without looking up. "Drink?"

"Not thirsty," Lucas said.

"Shame. I used real meat."

Lucas stopped a few paces away, arms loose at his sides. The silence stretched between them, long and deliberate. Then he spoke.

"You walked into my territory. Didn’t ping a beacon. Didn’t offer protocol. That’s a bold move."

Kai finally looked up, dark eyes sharp beneath wind-swept hair. "Didn’t come for protocol."

"Then what?"

"I came to join routes."

Lucas blinked once, then tilted his head slightly. "You serious?"

Kai nodded. "You run the East-West corridor. I have the Southeast. Military doesn’t touch it. Neither do the Shifter colonies. It’s ripe. But I need infrastructure. You have it."

Lucas didn’t respond.

Not right away.

He watched Kai closely—expression neutral, posture unreadable.

And a mile away, Ava sat on her bike, visor up, elbow draped over the handlebars.

She looked relaxed.

Unbothered.

But inside her helmet, with a few adjustments Ava was about to sync feed pulling from Lucas com loud and clear.

Lucas’s voice. Kai’s, too.

She wasn’t supposed to hear them.

But the integration was still active. Her body was still linked to his—deep enough to pass neural echoes across mid-range.

She leaned forward slightly.

Listening.

Kai shifted his legs beneath him, finally standing. "You don’t have to say yes. But I know what’s coming. The north routes are collapsing. The bunkers are tightening up. You want to keep control, you need reach. I can give you that."

Lucas crossed his arms. "You used to run with me. You know I don’t do shared rule."

"I’m not asking for equal command," Kai said. "Just a junction. A way to move goods without triggering ten different kill zones."

Lucas exhaled slowly. "You walked five miles to offer me a trade route?"

"I walked five miles to see if you’re still the man who knows how to say yes when it matters."

And Ava—still listening—let the words sink in like pressure behind her ribs.

Because something about the way Kai spoke didn’t sound like business.

Lucas didn’t answer right away.

He watched Kai like a predator weighing the space between moves. The wind caught his coat and tugged it sideways, exposing the side holster—still latched, but not empty.

Kai noticed the glance. Let it happen.

"If I wanted to start a war, I’d have brought more than soup," he said dryly.

"Maybe you brought poison instead."

Kai gave a crooked smile. "It wouldn’t work."

Lucas didn’t return the smile.

"You said you came for a junction," he said. "But this feels like you’re buying something else."

Kai exhaled through his nose, quiet. "I am."

Lucas’s eyes narrowed slightly. "So what do you really want?"

Kai glanced toward the horizon, then back at Lucas.

"Protection."

Lucas frowned. "Since when do you need protection?"

Kai took a step closer, voice dropping low.

"Since I stole something from the wrong person."

Lucas didn’t flinch, but his shoulders tensed.

"What kind of something?"

"Information. Location data. Core technology specs." He paused. "A name."

"Whose?"

Kai looked at him for a long moment.

"Yours."

Lucas went still.

One mile away, Ava sat straighter on her bike, breath catching slightly.

Kai kept speaking. "Someone’s trying to triangulate your system origin. Old-school stuff. Data residue mapping. Deep thread tracking. I bought a fragment of the report before it was wiped. It was labeled ’Subject: Bai - Unstable Core Signature.’"

Lucas said nothing.

Kai held out a small chip drive. "I don’t need your trust. Just give me a slot in your network and a reason not to get hunted."

Lucas stared at the chip. Then at Kai.

"You came here to sell your own guilt."

Kai smiled faintly. "No. I came to invest it in something with teeth."

And above them, on the ridgeline, Ava’s visor glinted faintly in the sun.

She was already downloading the backup audio.

This was leverage.

Slowly, wind picked up, scattering fine ash over the cracked earth between them, catching in the folds of his coat. Kai stood still, arm extended with the chip, offering not a deal—but a confession wrapped in opportunity.

The air between them pulsed with something sharp. Too quiet. Too still.

Ava narrowed her eyes behind the visor.

The conversation shouldn’t have triggered this level of system agitation, but her neural link to Lucas was flaring in response to his pulse. He was pissed. Not loudly. Not even visibly.

But inside, he was ready.

And that made her shift her grip on the throttle.

Lucas finally spoke, voice low.

"You dragged my name into threadspace?"

Kai didn’t blink. "I protected it. Pulled the listing before it spread. Deleted the tail code. Burned the thread."

"You think that makes us even?"

"No," Kai said calmly. "But I think it means I get to stand here long enough to ask for backup."

Lucas stared at the chip.

Ava could see his posture from the ridge—not tense, but centered. Dangerous.

Then, as if someone flipped a switch, he stepped forward.

Took the chip.

Slid it into a slot on his bracer.

Data blinked.

Loaded.

Kai let out a breath that wasn’t relief. More like acceptance.

Lucas said nothing.

Just turned, slowly.

And looked straight toward the ridge.

Ava froze.

She didn’t know if he could see her.

Didn’t know if the link had glitched or if he just knew.

But he lifted two fingers.

A signal.

Stay.

Ava scowled.

Lucas had taken the chip. Kai hadn’t run. The two of them were walking now, slowly, side by side toward the manor’s perimeter beacon—not quite allies, not quite enemies.

And Ava watched every step of it from her perch, still on the bike, still synced, still listening.

She should have gone back. The signal Lucas gave was clear. Stay out.

But something gnawed at her gut—not instinct, not strategy.

Experience.

And then her system pinged.

Not from Lucas.

Not from Kai.

A third signal.

[ALERT: Unauthorized system signature approaching. Range: 2.6 km. Bearing: 118° SE]

[Identification: UNKNOWN // Pattern: Fragmented]

[Status: Non-native thread resonance detected]

[Class: High-risk anomaly]

Her blood ran cold.

Ava dropped the visor back over her face and opened her private link.

"Lucas. We’ve got incoming. Not tagged. Not military. Non-native."

Static.

Then: "Say again."

"Something’s approaching from southeast. System’s calling it an anomaly."

Lucas swore under his breath. She heard it through the sync.

Kai turned, already scanning the horizon behind him.

"This you?" Lucas snapped.

"Not me," Kai replied, too fast to be lying. "I came alone."

The wind picked up.

And far off in the dust, something moved.

Its body was long and twisted, made of fused tissue and scavenged metal, wires growing like tendons over bone. It ran on six limbs, each one hitting the ground with a sickening, hydraulic crunch. Its eyes—all seven of them—burned red with heat signatures, locking onto motion like a hunting drone set loose.

Ava’s hand hovered over her sidearm.

Lucas stepped in front of Kai without thinking.

"Stay back," he said.

Kai didn’t listen.

Instead, he stepped around him—casual, unbothered, pulling something from his coat. A curved blade. Unmistakable. Smooth hilt, no visible edge, but humming with dormant energy.

Ava saw it through her scope.

Not a sword.

Not quite.

A key.

The creature reared up, screeching with static and feral rage. Its front limbs shattered the earth beneath it. Its mouth opened too wide, revealing jagged, wet components and a gullet that sparked.

Then Kai moved.

Fast.

Not just fast—inhuman.

He hit the creature mid-lunge, blade drawn with no flash, no flourish. Just motion and silence and purpose. The impact didn’t sound like violence. It sounded like resolution.

One stroke.

The creature stopped mid-air.

Then fell.

Hard.

A thud so deep it shook Ava’s bike.

Lucas turned slowly.

Kai stood still, blade extended.

The creature twitched once.

Then split in two.

Black liquid hissed out onto the dirt, fizzing as it hit the surface.

Kai exhaled and wiped the blade on his coat before sheathing it.

"What the hell was that?" Lucas asked.

Kai didn’t look back. "A warning."

From her ridge, Ava whispered into comms. "We need to talk about your definition of ’trouble.’"

Lucas didn’t respond.

Not yet.

Because the way Kai was looking at the ridge—at Ava, at the manor, at the distance between them all—he wasn’t finished.

Not by a long shot.

Lucas stared at the steaming carcass, the hiss of black acid still curling into the dirt.

"You always did have a talent for showing off," he muttered.

Kai gave him a sideways glance. "Would you rather I let it eat you?"

"No. I’d rather it never showed up in the first place."

Kai shrugged, flicking a trace of ichor from his boot. "I’m not the one broadcasting bait signals into threadspace. Someone else is sniffing around your signature. I just saw it first."

Lucas wiped his hand down the front of his bracer, annoyed. "You always blame the system, but you never clean up your trail. That thing tracked you."

"Tracked us," Kai corrected. "You don’t get to play solo anymore. That chip in your pocket says we’re both tagged now."

Lucas turned sharply. "I haven’t agreed to anything."

"Sure," Kai said. "But you didn’t kill me either. Which means we’re negotiating. And this—" he gestured at the monster’s remains, "—is part of the price."

Lucas exhaled through his nose. "You still have the worst timing."

"Bad habits," Kai said, smiling faintly. "I learned from the best."

Lucas looked up at the ridge.

Ava hadn’t moved.

But she’d definitely seen everything.

And somehow, her silence was louder than anything either of them said.

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