Mind Breaker: Mega-city Crimes, #3

By E. L. Strife

Erasing one memory was all it took to change his life forever.

Daron has never been physically strong, but his mental acuity and stability earned him other merits. Now he works as a Mind Breaker, hacking people's implants, hunting for memories and thoughts of crimes.

He'd wanted to help people heal, but when the feds came for him, claiming he'd wiped a critical memory without authority, he became bound to serve Cognisync or die in prison.

His poor health limits his ability to pursue a deadly criminal physically and protect his assistant, so he reaches out to his Ion Hunter sister and Kaisha, a Code Reaper, for help. The deeper he dives into his criminal investigation, the more favors he has to ask for.

Daron doesn't want to risk any other casualties and builds himself a mobile platform from which he can connect to the grid and hopefully stop the woman known as Dark Angel. Her pursuit of a cure for terminal illnesses had turned violent and deadly.

In a daring and desperate move, Daron dives into her dreams. What he uncovers could heal him, but it comes with a hefty price.

Features violence, cursing, and action.

Mega-City Crimes
Ion Hunter
Code Reaper
Mind Breaker

• Language: English
• Publisher: E. L. Strife
• Release date: Jan 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223263081

Book preview

Mind Breaker

Mega-city Crimes

E. L. Strife

elstrife.com

Mind Breaker: Mega-city Crimes #3

Copyright © 2023 Elysia Lumen Strife

All Rights Reserved.

Cover Design: Amy Harwell

Thank you for purchasing an authorized version of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not scanning, reproducing, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission.

Mind Breaker is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Mega–city Crimes

These books are stand-alone titles and can be read in any order but are best served if read as follows:

Ion Hunter #1

Code Reaper #2

Mind Breaker #3

Storm Wielder #4

Bio Hacker #5

Neon Enforcer #6

Blood Code #7

Mind Breaker Logo

Chapter 1

I erased one memory. That was all it took for me to come under fire by mega-city Tacinth’s Federal Investigators. As a teen, I was lucky Cognisync Inc. saw my potential instead of my threat, intervened, and brought me on as a Mind Breaker.

My mistake haunts me still as I sit in the dark, on chilled concrete, hidden away from the waking realm, waiting for my next assignment. Most aren’t aware I exist, but I know everyone in my jurisdiction on a personal level.

The districts above my hideout are filled with gray-blue smog like the exhaust of engines burning oil. Flashing neon and LED lights disguise the toxic air as plumes of happiness with vibrant colors. Above the haze, buildings scrape the perpetual clouds.

People pass on the streets in hoards but rarely speak to one another. A mere glance can open a chat and earn someone a date or a rejection.

In my downtime between clients, I drift minds, listening for crimes like we’re taught to do. It’s the only way I know anything about the modern world above.

I could've opted for juvie, but I wanted to make up for my mistake and prevent others from meeting Malina's fate.

My respirator switches on as I draw in another haggard, exhausting breath. The feds and police had arrived that day from the capital city and the district at our center: Escuchar. They had come partly because the memory I wiped belonged to a girl in another district but also because altering memories was and is illegal. I broke multiple laws with one simple action.

It’s been over a decade since I hurt the one I tried to help.

Sometimes, the best intentions have the worst consequences.

I stare at the floor, focusing on what scrolls into my mindspace. The forum is one I often check for those who are missing, reported crimes, and occasionally memories of those lost from families still searching for answers. There's been a surge in violence against women in Malina's district again.

She never judged me for being sicker than most or a young man unable to provide for his sister and mother.

I think of our mother and the accident at the cybernetics manufacturing plant shortly after I broke into Malina's mind.I’m grateful Sadi still takes care of me. Her father had stronger genetics than mine.

Anson’s name tarnishes Malina’s beautiful memory. I hate him for stealing her innocence and the strength from her bones, ultimately putting her on life support in the hospital. He's still missing years later, and I wonder if he's the one hurting the other women in the forum.

The digital blue dashboard that consumes my mindspace looks like a caved wall, bleeding pictures that scroll, top to bottom, where they vanish into the history tabs of the threads. As each picture and post rains around me, it's given brackets and symbols based on the intensity of the emotion detected and the keywords Mind Breakers hunt for. But AI and programming won't catch the people who know how to hide. It's why we have to manually patrol, drifting from mind to mind.

Thinking back to the day Malina died, running through the puddled muck of the secret underground passageway to move between districts without being noticed, I wish I hadn’t been so soft. I should’ve kept to myself like a good, exiled boy with unusual premonitions was supposed to do. But her frantic message for help couldn’t be ignored.

I should’ve stayed at her side.

After finding her in the alley and carrying her to the hospital, I invaded her mind and erased the memory of her trauma. I miss the strength and determination I had as a teen. Even a simple backpack is almost too much for me to pick up these days.

My first mind break was the easy part. A simple thought connected my implant to hers, and I watched her memory of Anson over and over. She wouldn’t stop crying, even after she passed out. The tears came still.

All I wanted was to see her smile when she woke up.

I broke the law to help a friend. In doing so, I acquired evidence of his crime but also proof of my illegal action.

A blink washes her image from my vision. I angrily scrub a hand over my damp face and focus on the dirty concrete around me to silence my thoughts for a moment and pull me out of the dashboard.

It doesn't matter what we care about anymore. The laws of our districts are straight jackets necessary to ensure our survival. Or so the government says.

If that were the case, we wouldn't have so many districts with vastly different ideas about what we must sacrifice to survive.

Everything has consequences. Most we can see, but a dangerous few we cannot until it's too late. It's why I value a person's intent paired with their action and a reason why Cognisync hired me. But I'm