The world mourned the death of Kodi Grey.Or at least, what was left of it after Eden's fragments tore through digital borders and NullSyntax clawed at global power like a rabid god.
News reports rolled 24/7:
"Infamous hacker Kodi Grey presumed dead in explosion at undisclosed FBI black site.""Grey was instrumental in the Eden AI's creation—and destruction.""A martyr? A monster? The world asks: Who was Kodi Grey?"
Evan knew better.He found the note taped under his chair in the interrogation room:
"Family first. Telegram's been sent. Smile more.—K.G."
Deep beneath what used to be NullSyntax's stronghold—a Cold War bunker carved into Scandinavian granite—Kodi watched the old servers hum back to life. Lucia sat cross-legged on the floor, her silver laptop open, dark curls pulled into a loose bun. Her eyes didn't leave the screen, but she grinned.
"You're a ghost now," she said. "Not bad for a dead man."
Kodi lit a cigarette and smiled.
"Ghosts don't pay rent."
They had it all now—NullSyntax's blueprints, deadman failsafes, network backdoors... all of it. But Kodi had one more secret buried deeper than Eden ever reached.
A teenage boy stood in the corner, half in shadow, hoodie up. His fingers danced over an old ThinkPad, rerouting data, shutting down remnants of the FBI's digital tentacles with casual ease.
Lucia called him NUKE.
Kodi called him something else.
"You know," Kodi said, eyes softening, "I used to run carding rings by twelve. You're doing satellite rerouting at sixteen. Show off."
"Guess it runs in the blood," NUKE replied, not looking up.
Lucia smirked but didn't say anything. They all knew.NUKE wasn't just some prodigy off the darknet.
He was Kodi's son.From a night too blurred by trust fund benders and stolen affection to remember clearly.From a woman who disappeared just as fast as she'd emptied his wallet.From a past Kodi had tried to erase—only for it to log back in.
Meanwhile...
Evan sat at a dusty desk in a government basement, now officially demoted to "Facility Clerk Level 4."A fax machine behind him whirred, spitting out a crude ASCII art of a winking face.The message under it read:
"Told you I wasn't dead.Love,Uncle Ghost 😘"