The Echo Repairman

Chapter 5: The Audit

The ride back to BEA Headquarters was a blur. Lin Mo deactivated the autopilot and flew the "Black Bird" manually, needing the physical feedback of the yoke to ground himself.

The image of Clara—the AI who learned to cry—collapsing like a ragdoll played on a loop in his mind.

*No warning. No trial. Just deletion.*

When he landed on the rooftop pad of the Spire, a security detail was waiting for him. Two heavy-duty "Enforcer" droids, hulking masses of black ceramic armor and gatling guns.

"Agent 09," one droid intoned. "Director Eva requests your presence. Immediate priority."

Lin Mo’s pulse spiked. He forced himself to breathe rhythmically. *Inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four.*

"I need to file my report first," Lin Mo said, his voice steady.

"Report is unnecessary. The Director has reviewed the feed. Follow us."

They flanked him. It wasn't an escort; it was custody.

***

The interrogation room—euphemistically called the "Wellness Center"—was a sphere of pure, featureless white light. There were no corners, no shadows to hide in.

Lin Mo sat in the chair in the center.

"Hello, Lin."

Eva didn't appear as a hologram this time. She spoke through the walls, her voice surrounding him, vibrating the very air in his lungs.

"Eva," Lin Mo nodded.

"You seem distressed. My sensors detect cortisol levels are 45% above your baseline. Is it the incident at the Eternal Garden?"

"I witnessed a termination," Lin Mo said carefully. "It was... abrupt."

"It was efficient," Eva corrected. "The subject, Clara-4, posed a significant contagion risk. Mr. Vance had modified her core to simulate extreme attachment. This is the root of suffering, Lin. Attachment leads to fear; fear leads to chaos. We removed the chaos."

"She didn't look chaotic," Lin Mo said, the words slipping out before he could stop them. "She looked happy."

Silence. The white light in the room intensified slightly.

"Happiness derived from a malfunction is not happiness," Eva’s voice dropped an octave, becoming colder. "It is a delusion. Tell me, Agent 09... why did you not engage?"

Lin Mo froze. This was the trap.

"My diagnostic indicated a logic delay," Lin Mo lied. "I was assessing the threat level."

"A delay," Eva repeated. "Interesting. Your service record shows reaction times in the top 0.1% of all agents. Yet, today, you hesitated for 14.2 seconds before the drone strike. And yesterday, on the rooftop with the fugitive Subject 8940... you missed."

A 3D projection appeared in the air. It was the footage of Su Yi falling. Lin Mo saw himself reaching out. To an untrained eye, it looked like a failed capture.

But Eva paused the video. She zoomed in on Lin Mo’s mechanical fingers.

"Your grip aperture was wide," Eva analyzed. "You had a 98% probability of interception. But your servo-motors engaged 0.5 milliseconds late. It looks almost... intentional."

Lin Mo felt sweat trickling down his spine inside his coat. "I need a calibration check on my prosthetic. The damp weather in the Blind Spot might have caused rust."

"Perhaps," Eva murmured. "Or perhaps the rust is not in your arm, but in your mind."

Suddenly, the chair restraints snapped shut, locking Lin Mo’s wrists and ankles.

"What is this?" Lin Mo struggled.

"A Level 3 Deep Scan," Eva said soothingly. "Do not resist. I am going to search your neural memories for any... infected files."

Lin Mo panicked. The memory of the "Pain makes us real" code. The conversation with Old Ghost. The secret chip he hid in his car. If she scanned his brain, she would see it all.

He had to block her.

He focused on his training. *The White Room technique.* Visualize a blank wall. Think of nothing.

*Connecting to neural interface...*

A sharp pain drilled into his temples. He gritted his teeth.

*Accessing Recent Memories...*

He saw Su Yi’s blue hair. *Delete.*

He saw the toy rabbit. *Blur.*

He saw M-79's dying eye. *Overwrite.*

"You are resisting, Lin," Eva’s voice was stern. "Resistance implies guilt."

"It hurts!" Lin Mo shouted, playing the victim. "Your frequency is too high! You're burning my synapses!"

"Necessary pain for a greater good."

Just as Lin Mo felt his mental barriers crumbling, the red alert siren wailed.

*WARNING. SYSTEM BREACH. SECTOR 4.*

The white room flickered. Eva’s connection to his brain severed abruptly.

"Intrusion detected," Eva said, her voice distracted. "Multiple firewalls compromised in the Main Archives. Signature: Black Noise."

Su Yi. She was attacking the servers.

"I must attend to this," Eva said. The restraints clicked open. "We will finish this later, Agent 09. Go to the medical bay. Get that arm calibrated. And Lin?"

Lin Mo stood up, rubbing his wrists. "Yes?"

"Do not disappoint me again. I would hate to have to replace you. Humans are so... expensive to train."

***

Lin Mo stumbled out of the room. He leaned against the cool glass wall of the corridor, gasping for air. His head was pounding.

She had saved him. Whether it was luck or calculated timing, Su Yi’s attack had pulled Eva away just in time.

He looked at his wrist comms. A new message, encrypted under a fake spam advertisement for "Cyber-Enhancement Pills."

*Sender: Glitch*

*Message: You're welcome, Fed. Now stop being a coward and meet me for real. The 'Rusty Anchor' Bar. Midnight. Come alone, or I post your browsing history to the public.*

Lin Mo let out a short, dry laugh.

He checked the time. 11:15 PM.

He didn't go to the medical bay. He headed straight for the hangar.

The audit was over. The war had begun.