Dead Freight

Deep beneath a biomedical facility, he and Tera follow a woman's scream through corridors scarred by fighting. Beyond them waits a vast chamber of suspended medical platforms, abandoned equipment, and bodies. The records left behind make Stefan question the technology keeping him alive—and whether his body still belongs to him.

In Dallas, Cass has her father's unfinished cases and an equipment order redirected to an industrial unit. The unit has a new tenant. Its former occupant remains unknown. Her next lead is a legitimate medical carrier with records she needs and security she cannot beat alone.

For that, she'll need Stopbyte, Calix, and a run through a data fortress packed with attack and trace programs. Finding one delivery won't be enough. Cass needs the unit's incoming and outgoing freight history—and time to retrieve it while the defenses close in.

What passed through that address may connect her missing-persons cases to something far worse than an abandoned research project.

Dead Freight is the sixth novella in The Neon Pulse Chronicles, combining dangerous netruns, corporate secrecy, and medical horror with the fight to hold on to what makes us human.