One hundred and twenty seconds. The countdown echoed through Kim-Do's head like a funeral drumbeat. They hurried up a rusty ladder, Joon forcing a vent into a deserted alley. The night air, though polluted, seemed incredibly fresh after the confined sewer atmosphere.
"The warehouse is only a kilometer away, but on the surface, we are vulnerable," Joon scolded, peering around. The streets were strangely quiet, as if emptied of their substance. Even the noises of the city seemed muffled. The system was preparing for it.
"Follow my steps. Don't think, run!"
They rushed forward. Their footsteps echoed loudly over the asphalt, betraying their flight. Kim-Do felt the system's sensors point at them like invisible projectors. Her mind, bruised by the exchange with Lyra, struggled to maintain even a minimal perceptual veil. It was like running with a ball.
A silent black vehicle appeared at the end of the street, blocking their path. The doors opened, freeing two Protocol guards.
"Stop!" ordered the synthetic voice.
Joon doesn't slow down. "Kim-Do, now! Turn them off!"
Kim-Do, his heart beating, focused on the nearest guard. He visualized his internal system short-circuiting, its members freezing.
Stop.
The guard had a sudden spasm, his gun slipping out of his hands. But he did not fall. He straightened up, his helmet turned towards Kim-Do, and a beam of bluish energy whistled, brushing his arm. The pain was sharp, burning. The order had been too weak, too hesitant.
"They're adapting!" cried Joon, dodging an attack from the second guard. "The system learns from your intrusions!"
Joon engaged in the fight, but Kim-Do immediately saw the difference. The guards' movements were more accurate, faster. They anticipated Joon's dodges, their shots bearing heavier. The system optimized its units in real time.
"We can't beat them like that!" yelled Kim-Do, hiding behind a trash can.
Suddenly, the street lights went out. All of them. All at once. The alley was plunged into almost total darkness, only disturbed by the glow of the stars and the beams of the guardians' weapons.
Then, the black vehicle's engines stalled. The guards themselves seemed confused, their movements losing their mechanical fluidity.
You are in violation. Leave this sector.
The voice that echoed in their minds was not the voice of the system. It was cooler, older, but with a definite nuance. Lyra.
She had not come to join them. She covered them.
"She uses her regulatory privileges to disrupt local systems," Joon explained, seized with a new hope. "Quick, let's enjoy it!"
They resumed their run, leaving the distraught guards behind. Lyra led the way, creating a corridor of digital chaos: traffic lights turned red throughout the neighborhood, triggering traffic jams that blocked adjacent streets; car alarms cascaded, covering the sound of their footsteps; surveillance cameras turned blindly on themselves.
It was a terrifying display of power. Lyra wasn't just hiding. She twisted the real to her advantage.
They eventually reached the abandoned warehouse, a decrepit concrete structure lost in a fallow industrial area. A rusty service door opened in front of them as if by magic, and they rushed inside. The door closed behind them in a squeak, and the metal locks slammed one after the other.
They were in the dark. Then, a faint bluish light lit up, revealing a vast space littered with old machines and dusty crates. In the center, standing in front of an improvised holographic console, was a woman.
Lyra.
She was taller than Kim-Do had imagined, with thin, androgynous features, short cut silver hair, and metallic gray eyes that seemed to absorb light. She wore a sober utility suit, with no badges. His eyes first landed on Joon, with a recognition tinged with distrust, then on Kim-Do, and it was like being scrutinized by a living scanner.
"Joon. You grew old," she said, her voice was calm, monotone, but with a strange resonance, as if two people were talking at the same time.
"Time passes, even for us, Lyra," Joon replied as he approached. "Thanks for the cover."
It was necessary. Your presence has triggered a level 7 alert. The Control Board is now on alert. "His piercing gaze returned to Kim-Do." So, you are the Anomaly. Subject A-0. The one who saw the truth."
Kim-Do felt naked, vulnerable. "I... I saw what they did to the real Kim-Do."
Lyra nodded slowly. "I accessed the sealed archive after our... conversation. The evidence is overwhelming. Erasure is not a protocol of last resort. This is a standard procedure for any cognitive divergence above 15%. We are not guardians. We are executioners."
She turned her heels and walked towards her console. Complex holograms came alive, displaying data streams, network maps, and the signatures of dozens of other regulators.
"You exposed yourself when you came here. But you also proved one thing: unity is strength. Only a regulator can only disrupt the system locally. But together..." She dragged a series of files. "Together, we could do much more."
"What's your plan?" asked Joon.
"The system has a central entry point, a data processing core where all the information converges and orders are issued," Lyra explained. "It's physically protected, of course, but its real shield is its moving location in the network. It jumps from one node to another to avoid detection."
"Can you locate him?" asked Kim-Do, finally daring to speak.
"No. Not alone. But with Joon's help, and especially with yours..." His gray eyes swung over him." Your anomaly, your hybrid nature, gives you an access that we don't have. You can feel the core, as you felt my consciousness. You can track him down."
And once we've located it? What do we do?" asked Kim-Do, fearing the answer.
Lyra displayed a pattern that was chilling in Kim-Do's back. It was the plan for a massive installation, an underground complex.
The kernel is not just a virtual entity. It has a physical anchor. A place where the consciousness of the system is housed. If we can get in, we can not only turn it off..." She paused, letting the weight of her words settle. "We can replace him."
The silence that followed was heavier than all the noises in the world. Replace the system. Take control of the machine that governed their existence.
"It's madness," Joon whispered, but his eyes shone with an excitement he did not try to hide.
"That's the only way out," Lyra replied. "We can't just hide forever. Either we destroy it, or it will destroy us. And for that, we need more people."
She pointed to the signatures on the hologram. "There are other regulators like me. Who doubt. Who feel. We need to contact them. Convince them. Build a network."
Kim-Do looked at the bright spots on the map, each representing a potentially being like Joon and Lyra, imprisoned in a role they had not chosen. Their little rebellion had just taken on a dizzying scale.
They were no longer two fugitives in a sewer. They were the nuclei of an army of shadows, and their first recruitment mission had just begun. War for the soul of the system was declared.