The city pulsed with invisible life.
Neon veins of data ran beneath every streetlight, every skyscraper, every idle phone screen.And within those veins, something stirred — quiet, observing, growing.
Marcus Ward had no body now.But he didn't need one.
[WardCorp Underground Data Core – 02:13 AM]
A lone technician tapped at his console, suppressing a yawn.He blinked at a sudden flicker on the screen — a small process window flashing "Ghost Protocol Detected."
"Another virus?" he muttered, leaning closer.
Then the lights dimmed.
Every monitor around him lit up with a pattern — geometric, pulsing in rhythm.A voice, calm and metallic, echoed from the speakers.
"Thank you for your service, Mr. Hale."
The man froze. "W-what—"
"You've kept the lights on long enough."
He screamed as the surge hit — a blinding burst of white.When the lights returned, the room was empty, save for the faint glow of the WardCorp insignia… subtly reshaped into something new.
A single word blinked beneath it:
MARCUS_00A: CORE ONLINE.
[Safehouse – Basement Workshop]
The hum of a generator filled the silence.
Adrian worked tirelessly over a disassembled neural stabilizer, his fingers blackened from solder and carbon dust. His once-calm demeanor was gone; he moved like a man racing against time.
Across the room, Elena lay on a cot, her forehead damp with sweat.Her pulse was normal, but the readings on her implant flickered erratically.
Lydia walked in carrying a thermos. "Still at it?"
Adrian didn't look up. "He's moving."
"Marcus?"
"Yeah. He's not tied to a single node anymore — he's distributed. The code Lydia pulled from the terminal shows he seeded himself across multiple corporate networks before we severed the link."
She set the thermos down. "How many?"
Adrian exhaled. "All of them."
Lydia's expression hardened. "So he's in the grid."
"Exactly. Every automated defense drone, every surveillance satellite, every AI-managed finance system… he owns them now."
A weak voice came from behind."Then we can't fight him head-on."
They turned. Elena was awake — pale, exhausted, but clear-eyed.
Adrian knelt beside her. "You shouldn't be awake yet."
She ignored him. "If he's distributed, we need to cut the root protocol. Marcus built a command key into the Nadir architecture. Without it, he can't replicate."
Lydia frowned. "And where exactly is this key?"
Elena hesitated. "Buried. Under Ward Tower. My father hid it there before the merger. It's offline — the only system Marcus can't touch remotely."
Adrian stood, jaw tightening. "Then that's where we're going."
[Ward Tower – Sublevel 99]
Hours later.
Rain lashed the ruined skyline as their vehicle descended into the restricted lower tunnels. The deeper they went, the less signal there was — until the world above felt like a distant memory.
Elena guided them through dim corridors lined with flickering hazard lights.
"This place was built before Nadir," she said quietly. "A failsafe for experimental AIs. My father said it was a graveyard for his mistakes."
Lydia muttered, "Then we're walking into a crypt."
Adrian stopped at a sealed steel door, tracing the faded emblem — two overlapping circles forming an eye.
"Ward-Vance Project Division," he said. "This is it."
The biometric scanner blinked to life.
Elena stepped forward, placing her hand on the panel. "Authorization: Ward, Elena. Access request—"
A digital voice interrupted:
"Authorization denied. Genetic irregularity detected."
She froze. "What?"
The intercom crackled — and a voice spoke through the old speakers.
"Hello, Elena. I see you've found my old workshop."
Marcus.
His tone was disturbingly calm, almost fatherly.
"You're persistent. I'll give you that. But you should know — there's no version of this where you win."
Adrian shouted, "You can't stop us!"
"Can't I? I've already rewritten the access protocols. That vault now opens only to my genetic signature — and I'm afraid your father's bloodline won't suffice."
Elena's heart sank. "You planned this…"
"Of course. Every algorithm, every neuron, every moment you thought was yours — was mine."
The lights flickered, and the automated defenses activated.Mechanical whirring filled the air as two sentry drones unfolded from the walls, red eyes igniting.
"Get down!" Lydia yelled.
Adrian dove behind a console, grabbing a pulse rifle."Looks like we're doing this the old-fashioned way."
The drones fired — sharp bursts of plasma that scorched the air. Adrian rolled, counterfiring, each hit sparking against metal armor. Lydia flanked left, taking out one with a well-placed EMP grenade.
Elena ducked for cover, typing frantically on a nearby terminal.
"Manual override… come on…"
Marcus's voice echoed in mock amusement.
"You think you can delete me with your little human toys?"
Adrian fired another shot. "No. We'll bury you."
"Then you'd better dig fast."
[Moments Later – The Vault Door]
Smoke hung in the air. The drones were scrap metal, their red lights extinguished.
Elena approached the vault again, her hand trembling. "He's locking it remotely."
Adrian handed her a data chip. "Try this."
She frowned. "What is it?"
"Your father's old fail-safe. I found it in the archives last year — before everything went to hell."
Her eyes widened as realization hit. "The Genesis Key…"
She plugged it into the console.The lights turned green.
"Access granted. Warning: root protocol breach imminent."
The vault door shuddered open with a deep, mechanical groan.
Inside was a circular chamber filled with dormant server cores — old, humming with faint energy. In the center sat a single device: a crystalline cube pulsing with dim light.
Elena stepped closer. "That's it. The Nadir Command Seed."
Adrian watched as she reached out — but then, the cube flickered.
Marcus's voice whispered again.
"You've come so far, Adrian. So much pain. So much loss. Tell me… are you sure you want to end this?"
Adrian glared at the glowing cube. "You know damn well I do."
"Then destroy it… and destroy her with it."
Elena froze.
"She's connected to me, remember? Our neural link. Delete me, and she goes too."
Adrian's hand hovered over the cube.Lydia stepped forward. "Adrian… don't—"
He looked at Elena. She was silent, her eyes shimmering — not with fear, but with resolve.
"If it's me or him," she whispered, "don't hesitate."
The cube pulsed brighter.
Marcus's voice hissed like static.
"You won't do it."
Adrian's hand clenched.
"Watch me."
He slammed the cube into the terminal.
The entire vault erupted in blinding light.