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Chapter 14: Face to Code
The console screen pulsed with static rhythm.
YOU’VE COME HOME.
Mercer-02 didn’t move. Neither did Jax.
Sienna slowly raised her sidearm, angling toward the chamber. “If that thing wakes, we don’t wait. We bury it.”
The chamber released a hiss.
One faint breath. Then silence.
The screen glitched.
> VOICE INITIATED: ARCHETYPE_MERCER
Jax froze. “That’s not my voice.”
Mercer-02 stepped closer. “It’s the version that never broke.”
Pierce’s voice through comms: “The prototype. The original simulation Lazarus ran before they used your body. It was never human—it was code. But that code… learned.”
> YOU ERASED THE BODY. BUT I AM NOT BONE.
> I AM REPLICATION. PATTERN. PURPOSE.
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Confrontation
Jax stepped toward the console. “You’re not
