Caleb woke up in a rusted med-bay, surrounded by broken monitors and illegal tech. Wires ran from his chest into a cooling unit — steam hissed as his body rejected corrupted fragments.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" a familiar voice growled.
It was Nyah, a rogue engineer with synthetic arms and a chip-scar running down her left cheek. She had once tried to rewire her own memories. It cost her her family… and her past.
"I didn't ask for this," Caleb croaked.
"You didn't have to," she snapped. "They're watching you now. Red-Eyes is hunting again."
That name sent static crawling down his spine — Red-Eyed Hacker, a ghost in the system. A hunter of code healers. A nightmare from the DeepNet.
Suddenly, the walls blinked. Cameras turned on.
> "Subject 17. Hello, parasite."
The voice wasn't human. It was deep, digitized, glitched.
Red-Eyes had found him.