Neon Ghost

Chapter 18: The Night Echo Died

Sub-level 5. Blind Joe's VIP suite.

The air still choked on premium cigars and formaldehyde.

Adrian slammed a blood-smeared white data chip onto the mahogany desk. "Marcus's raw source file. First-person POV. Uncut. Enough for the core?"

Joe slotted the chip into the desk reader. The holo-screen flashed frames of brutal, bloody butchery. His organic eye crinkled in pure bliss, gold crowns catching the dim light.

"Top-shelf. Pure malice and betrayal. A vintage wine fermented from the gray matter of a Mid-Tier exec." Joe popped the chip out and snapped his fingers. "Scrub Dr. Vance's tag. And bring up the product."

A bodyguard stepped forward with a lead-lined lockbox.

Joe cracked the lid.

The archaic black AI core, bristling with cooling fins, rested on black velvet. Ghost-blue light pulsed between the fins, breathing like a living thing.

The port at Adrian's nape spasmed. Deep in his skull, Lena let out a fragile, infant-like murmur. *"Home..."*

"Verify it." Joe gestured. "Market rules. No refunds once you walk out."

Adrian didn't hesitate. He ripped the neural shunt from his nape and jammed it into the core's physical port.

Eyes shut. Jacked in.

No data ocean. No code.

He plummeted straight into a crystal-clear, first-person memory feed. Lena's POV.

*Three years ago. The night before the Echo crew fell.*

*Omega's subterranean lab.*

*"She" (Lena) was strapped to the slab. Chest cracked open.*

*Victoria stood there in her black uniform, holding the archaic core. No elegance left. Just pale, cold sweat and blood from a bitten lip.*

*"I'm sorry, Lena." Victoria's voice shook. "If I don't do this, they'll toss my sister into the undercity incinerator."*

*Victoria slammed the core into her chest. Agony. Dark.*

The memory should have ended there.

But Adrian didn't jack out. Leveraging the Advisor's root access he'd devoured, he clawed deep into the memory's base-code.

The feed shattered like glass, peeling away.

Beneath the fabricated "betrayal" lay a raw, uncorrupted feed.

*The same lab.*

*Victoria held the core. But she didn't slam it in.*

*She handed it to a shadow.*

*A man stepped into the light. Battered jacket. Half his face plated in cheap chrome. Right eye a flickering red optic.*

*Ray "Rat".*

*Ray took the core, looking down at Lena on the slab. He grinned. "Sorry, Lena. Omega's payout was just too fat."*

*It was Ray who brutally slammed the core into her spine. While Victoria stood aside, weeping in despair.*

Adrian's eyes snapped open. He ripped the shunt free.

He stared dead at the core in the box, trembling. Not from rage. From a bone-deep, freezing dread.

"What's wrong?" Isabella caught his shift.

Adrian didn't answer. He turned his head to Blind Joe.

Joe was lounging on the sofa, puffing his cigar. But the holo-screen had shifted. It was playing the "true" feed Adrian had just seen.

"Hell of a plot twist, right?" Joe blew a thick smoke ring, his scanner optic glowing with a sickening crimson pulse. "You thought you bought the truth, Adrian. But you just jacked into a tailor-made logic virus."

---

Chapter 19 Hook

An ice-pick cold drove into the port at Adrian's nape.

Not pain. Code flash-freezing his spinal fluid.

*"Warning. Root logic overwritten."* Lena's voice was stripped of all humanity. Flat. Mechanical. *"Purging target: Lena Vance. Resetting protocol: Omega Loyalty."*

Adrian looked up.

His left eye was bleeding into a pure, milky white.