Red lights flood the ceiling as rain hammers the roof above. I roll off the metal table and land hard on the cold floor. My shoulder aches. Broken glass crunches under my palm.
Vesper drops beside me and brushes strands of silver hair from her face. Her eyes shine with code. "They traced our signal," she says in a low voice. "We have minutes before the Central Algorithm sends enforcers."
I press my hand to the wall and push myself up. Water from the leaking pipes drips down my neck. My glasses fog. I wipe them on my sleeve until vision snaps back into focus. "Where to now?" I ask.
She taps her wrist console and a dim map flickers in the air. "The ghost node is under Warehouse Nine on Sector Row. We move through the vents."
Footsteps echo beyond the door. Distant drones buzz like angry hornets. Every second feels like a knife twisting in my gut. I nod and follow her toward a grated vent cover high on the wall.
We lift it together and slip into the narrow shaft. The metal walls sweat cold sweat. Pipes rattle overhead. My chest tightens with each breath. Vesper leads and I close my eyes for a moment. The cold ghost of my future self passes through my mind again. A warning or a threat I cannot parse.
She reaches a lock panel and jabs a thumbprint into the scanner. The bolts click open. We slide forward in single file. My boots scrape the vent floor. The sound is deafening in my skull.
Below us the world feels alive and ruthless. I can hear the storm outside pounding the city. Car horns and sirens blur together in a low roar. I imagine the empty streets lit by neon signs and the glow of shattered digital displays.
Vesper stops and crouches. "Pressure valve ahead," she whispers. She pulls a small tool from her pocket and works the valve free. Steam hisses out and the grate behind us seals itself. "They will not follow this way."
We climb down a short ladder into a service tunnel. My hand grazes the ancient brick wall. It is coated in oil and error messages painted in bright graffiti. Words like glitch echo and collapse stare back at me.
I swallow hard and keep moving. The tunnel slopes downward toward a heavy metal door. Vesper taps its surface and a hidden panel slides open. She pockets the piece of metal and pulls me inside.
Inside is dark. A row of broken servers stands like tombstones. Dust drifts through narrow beams of light. I step forward and feel a buzz of static in the air. My gloves stick to the control console at the center.
Vesper drops to her knees and plugs in her data card. Blue code dances across the screen. She glances up at me. "Stand by for decryption."
I run a hand through my hair and stare at the cracked monitor. Fragments of files flicker in and out of view. Words like Aegis Quantum and echo anomaly flash across the glass. My heart hammers in my chest.
"Keep it steady," I say. My voice sounds calm to my own ears. My mind races with questions. Is the collapse truly a glitch in time or a plot born from power hunger? Who stands behind the scenes pulling the strings of reality itself?
A faint hum grows louder. The servers pulse with energy. Vesper's fingers move fast. Each keystroke feels like a heartbeat. The hum turns into a roar and I brace myself against the console.
Then the monitors blink out as power reroutes. I stumble and catch myself on a server rack. Sparks dance around my fingers. Heat singes my skin. I pull back with a grunt.
"They cut our feed," Vesper says. Her voice trembles but she forces a grin. "But the core archive is still intact."
Footsteps thunder in the corridor outside. Heavy boots and the clank of armor. The enforcers have arrived. I glance at Vesper and see fear flicker in her eyes. She touches my arm. "We have ten seconds before they breach."
My jaw clenches. I reach into my pocket for the ancient coin that keeps my memories from shattering. It is gone. My blood freezes. I pat the empty space. Nothing.
"No," I whisper. The coin was my anchor. My last link to who I once was. Now it has vanished.
"Silas," Vesper says softly. She looks down at her hands. They shake. "We need to shut down this node and vanish."
I scan the room. Cables hang from the ceiling. Broken glass litters the floor. The main server tower glows dimly with a final sequence. That is our exit point. I step forward.
Vesper stands and joins me at the console. She reengages the decryption algorithm. Files pour into her rig. She grits her teeth. "Ready."
I nod and press the command. The room hums again as data floods in. I catch glimpses of hidden layers of truth. A master plan to rewrite history. A backdoor in every timeline. A code that can erase free will.
The hum crescendos then plunges into silence. The door crashes open and light slices through the darkness. Enforcers fill the doorway. Their rifles are raised.
Vesper hits a switch. The lights cut and we disappear from view. Our shapes fade into the static. I feel the surge of the ghost protocol taking hold.
The enforcers fire blindly into the darkness. Every shot rattles my bones. We slip through a hidden trap door under the console. Cold water washes over my boots as I drop into a shallow pool.
I surface and gulp air. My chest burns. I swim toward a narrow tunnel that leads deep under the city. Vesper follows close behind. Our breathing echoes against damp stone.
I glance at her face in the dim glow. She looks drained but determined. She carries the decrypted files in a waterproof case strapped to her wrist. The secrets we hold will change everything.
We reach a ladder and climb out onto a deserted service road. Rain pours down and washes away the blood and dust on my face.
Vesper taps her console and disables the ghost protocol. We reappear and blend into the shadows. I press my back against a wall covered in peeling posters.
I breathe in the cold night air and feel my pulse slow. Every muscle aches but I cannot rest. The data lives in Vesper's rig now. The path to the truth lies ahead.
I close my eyes and feel the weight of memory pressing in. Someone else has touched my mind. Someone else altered the code of my thoughts.
"Someone else has accessed my quantum memories"