GENRE: Gay Futuristic Erotic Romance
LENGTH: 58,859 words
RATING:

Fox is a mindnet hacker, one of the best. He and fellow hackers work for a mysterious man known only as King, and they spend their time uncovering dangerous secrets and releasing them to the public.

Those who dig up trouble are bound to find it, and despite their best precautions, King is captured by an unknown government. While Fox and his team try desperately to find a way to free him, Fox meets another mysterious man who is only known by a number -- Seven. Seven works for the other side, but sometimes, uncovering secrets also raises doubts.

Fox and company need all the help they can get. Will Seven help them, and at what cost?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

"Found you."

Joanne attacked. Fox didn't even have time to properly realize that there was an agent behind them before Joanne had dropped everything and launched herself at him. Joanne didn't even need weapons; her bare hands could do enough damage by themselves.

The agent didn't try to attack them, however, simply dodged Joanne's blows. He didn't even move, his limbs simply blurred and shifted just enough that she never laid a hand on him.

"Don't make me shoot you again."

"He shot you?" Fox asked in alarm, looking at Joanne as if he could tell by sight where she'd been injured.

"It must be the same one. I can't tell them apart."

"Surely you know me?" the agent smiled, a sharp-angled thing filled with dark amusement. "Then again, you have all the sand in Egypt for company, so what need have you to remember me?"

"What do you mean by that?" Fox demanded, watching as Joanne made a fresh attempt to put her foot through his face.

"Still in denial, I see. That was an Egypt reference again, in case you missed it," the agent sang, easily avoiding Joanne's attacks.

What was with this man's preoccupation with Egypt? He wasn't making any sense at all to Fox.

"I'd say something about locating your pyramids, but I'm not sure you'd like that at all."

Oh. Oh.

"You!" Fox hissed, before leaping at him, shifting into a fox mid-jump.

"Oh, you do remember me," the agent said, sounding delighted. "But maybe next time you could take me to Paris instead. I've heard the view's lovely from the top of the Eiffel Tower at night."

"Fox, is this guy flirting with you?"

"No! Not a word, Joanne. Nothing about him touching my Eiffel Tower or anything of the sort!"

"You said it so much better than I ever could."

"You shut up, too, crazy government guy!"

"Seven."

"What?" Fox stopped trying to claw his face off in surprise.

"I'm Seven. That's what I'm called, just so you know. I'm a different one than all the others."

"That doesn't matter when I can't tell you lot apart from each other anyway," Fox said.

Joanne and the agent had quit moving, eyeing one another up cautiously, but having stopped attacking and dodging in turn.

"You know, your friend King can tell us apart."

Fox was struck speechless with indignation. How dare he mention King so casually like that, when Fox and Joanne and everyone were all scared of what had happened to him once he was in the government's clutches?

While Fox was distracted with his own rage, Seven got close enough to get his gloved hands around Fox's middle. Fox froze in surprise before automatically becoming human again.

This time, that psychological trick didn't work.

Suddenly, Fox's face was close enough that he could see the man's eyes through the tinted lenses of his goggles. Even the agent seemed surprised, and in his periphery, Joanne stared on in shock, motionless.

"So, you've got me. Now what?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead," Seven said.

"Yes."

"Well."