Ash showed up at The Nest after midnight.
No warning. No knock. Just a whisper of boots on broken tiles.
"You need to pack," she said."Why?""Because they found you."
Riven didn't move.Didn't even blink.
"Who?""The ones I work for."
Silence stretched like tension wire.
Ash exhaled. "I wasn't sent to buy from you. I was sent to test you."
"Test me for what?""Suitability. Obsession. Willingness to bend."
She pulled a patch from her coat. Sleek. Black. A triangle over a circuit skull.
"MINDVAULT."
A private black-research syndicate. Buried so deep it didn't exist in open records. They built tech governments were scared to even name.
"They want you in. Or out of the way.""And you?""I'm breaking protocol even telling you."
Riven stared at the badge. At Ash.
"So what happens now?""Now, you decide."
She slid a data chip across the workbench.
"Blueprints. Concepts. Access keys. If you want in—build what's on this chip. We'll know."
And just like that, she vanished.
Riven didn't touch the chip.
Not yet.
Instead, he locked it in a fireproof box, welded the box shut, and got back to work on TOOLHAND v2.
Because if they wanted a builder...
They'd get one on his terms.