Kael’s jaw tightened. His life had never run straight; it bent around favors and debts. He had chosen a path that intersected with danger and with other people’s grief. That intersection never yielded a clean map.
Kaelen "Proxy" Vance has been compared to a millennial Neuromancer’s Case—but Ch. 3.0 transforms them into something more tragic. Proxy is no longer cool. They are exhausted. They are thirty-seven years old in a world where hackers burn out by twenty-five. Their neural implant causes migraines. Their hands shake from old stimulant abuse. They have a cat, named "NOP" (a computer science joke for "No Operation"), which is the only living thing they trust. Back Door Connection -Ch. 3.0- By Doux