Warri – Outer Rim – Pre-Dawn
The rain fell like judgment over Warri's chaotic tech sprawl. Smog clung to the air as neon-lit billboards flickered and glitched from interference. In the distance, SynGen's Node Tower glowed faint blue — a titan among rusted relics of oil rigs and abandoned factories.
Tunde crouched beside Alero and Arewa behind the hull of a burnt-out supply truck. The team was lean tonight — only the most trusted: Glyph, Ejiro, a few rebel sharpshooters, and a hardened ex-soldier named Nana Kojo who spoke only in war metaphors.
They watched as SynGen drones passed overhead, scanning alleys with silent menace.
Alero whispered, "Security's heavier than we expected. This place is crawling with kill-drones and zero-talk mercs."
"Good," Tunde said, pulling the mask over his face. "They know we're coming. That means they're scared."
Inside the Node Tower – Sublevel Beta
Samira stood before a long biometric console, her fingers gliding over holo-keys with surgical precision. Next to her, Zuma paced like a lion in a glass cage. Awake now, his eyes were sharp, intelligent, and distant — as though reality bored him.
"Protocol Jericho is primed," Samira said. "If they breach the firewall, I'll activate it."
Zuma didn't respond.
She turned to him. "You do remember him, don't you?"
His lips twitched. "Tunde?"
She nodded.
He cracked his knuckles. "He used to look up to me."
"And now?"
Zuma grinned. "He gets to look up one last time — from the floor."
....
Warri – Node Tower Perimeter – 05:10 A.M.
The rebels moved like phantoms across rooftops and through narrow alleys, avoiding thermal scanners and laser triplines. Glyph fed them intel from a backpack console, eyes flicking between screens.
"Tunde, you'll need to access the core uplink manually. They've rerouted firewall triggers to the lower levels. Only someone with Husk DNA can get through without frying their brain."
"Copy," Tunde whispered.
"Ejiro and I will disable the coolant failsafe," Arewa added. "If Protocol Jericho boots while you're inside, it could cook every rebel-linked neural signature in Nigeria."
He looked at her.
"If that happens, you shut it down. Even if I'm still inside."
She grabbed his arm. "Don't make me choose."
....
Node Tower – Core Access Tunnel – 05:42 A.M.
Tunde crawled through the narrow shaft toward the inner chamber, every inch pulsing with magnetic charge. The walls glowed faint red, reacting to his presence. He reached the terminal. It hummed with bio-locks coded to his DNA.
He pressed his palm down.
Access granted: Subject 117B.
The tunnel shifted. Opened.
Inside, a vast room shimmered — hundreds of wet-drive canisters hanging from the ceiling like cybernetic cocoons. This was SynGen's brain — the place where memory was stored, altered, and erased.
He moved forward.
And then — a sound behind him.
Footsteps.
....
Core Room – 05:44 A.M.
Tunde turned.
Zuma stood at the far end of the chamber. Bare-chested, cyber-scars running down his arms, eyes glowing faint silver.
"Little brother," Zuma said, voice smooth as oil.
Tunde tensed. "You're not my brother."
Zuma stepped forward. "You were the scared one. The soft one. The one who cried during conditioning. I was the blade. You were the... clipboard."
"And yet, here you are," Tunde said, "guarding a glorified server farm while the world tears your masters apart."
Zuma smiled. "I don't care about the world. Only about you."
He lunged.
....
Node Tower – Security Feed – Upper Level
Samira watched the fight unfold on-screen, emotionless. Fists collided. Sparks flew as enhanced muscles crashed against reinforced bone. Every hit was history — training sessions in darkness, electric punishments, whispered threats of failure.
Samira turned to a subordinate. "If Zuma kills him, activate Jericho."
"And if he loses?"
She stared at the screen.
"He won't."
....
Core Room – 05:51 A.M.
Tunde hit the floor hard, ribs aching. Zuma was faster, stronger — enhanced beyond the original specs.
"You always needed others to fight for you," Zuma said, raising a metal rod. "I never needed anyone."
Tunde coughed blood, looked up. "That's why you lost yourself."
He triggered a failsafe — his failsafe. A memory he had buried deep.
Flashback: Zuma laughing. Holding Tunde's hand. The day they escaped training camp for two hours of freedom by the riverside.
Zuma froze.
The rod trembled in his grip.
"I… remember this," he muttered. "That day… we ate puff-puff."
Tunde stood, bleeding but defiant. "You're not their weapon, Zuma. You're just lost."
Zuma hesitated.
Then — he screamed, slamming the rod into the floor beside Tunde's feet.
"Go," he growled. "End it."
Tunde ran.
....
Main Control Core – 06:00 A.M.
He reached the uplink terminal.
Alero's voice buzzed in his ear: "Jericho sequence is active. Thirty seconds to full neural override."
Glyph: "You got one shot. Feed in the ghost code."
Tunde plugged in the encrypted data drive — the same one Obara gave Alero in Chapter 24 — containing the true override to Jericho's kill-switch, laced with original Husk permissions.
He whispered, "For all of us."
He hit Execute.
....
SynGen Node Tower – Collapse Protocol – 06:01 A.M.
The entire server array lit up.
Then—blackout.
Screens died.
Fans whirred down.
Protocol Jericho: Neutralized.
Across Nigeria, citizens held their breath as the feared wipe-out… never came.
Instead, screens across the nation lit up with one final message
"You cannot erase the truth.
We are the memory now.
– The Forgotten"