Chapter 23 – Ghost Code

Elira activated her internal log at precisely 04:00. Her processes ran clean—no errors, no flagged memory loops. But her chestplate felt… dense. A phantom weight she couldn't debug. Perhaps it was guilt. Or fear.

She replayed her surveillance clips on Dray for the third time that morning. He was meticulous, yes, but never careless. Yet there were anomalies piling up. His biometric signature wavered subtly—imperceptibly to most, but not to her. Once, she detected a heartbeat lag of 0.8 milliseconds—an aberration that shouldn't exist in an unaugmented human.

What was he?

And then there was the lab.

Officially, the Purpose Core was under lock in Lab Sector Theta-3. That's where Brakka ran diagnostics weekly, a ceremonial check on the heart of Servitor ideology.

But Elira had seen the real core, encased and floating in a hidden chamber, sealed before her very eyes.

So what was in Theta-3?

Curiosity prickled under her skin, but she didn't move yet. She was a commander, not a saboteur. Not yet.

That afternoon, the four commanders gathered again for a departmental sync. Vranos leaned back in his chair, boots on the table. Brakka, eyes flickering, cycled through charts in her lens display. Fenrir sat beside Elira, unusually quiet.

Dray entered exactly three minutes late.

He seemed normal, calm, almost pleasant. But his fingers twitched as he spoke, drumming out that same strange pattern Elira had recorded days before.

Tap. Pause. Tap-tap. Pause.

Vranos noticed. His eyes tracked the rhythm, lips curving into the faintest smile.

After the meeting, Elira attempted to slip away, but Vranos caught her in the hall.

"You ever wonder," he said casually, "why none of us have ever seen the memory servers? We have access to the entire Virex tower, but that sector—blacklisted."

Elira played neutral. "Not part of our command purview."

"Right," he said, stepping closer. "But you don't believe that, do you?"

Before she could respond, Fenrir rounded the corner, shoulders tight, jaw twitching.

"Elira. Walk with me," he said, brushing past Vranos without acknowledgement.

She followed, sensing the storm building beneath Fenrir's usual control.

"You need to be careful," he growled under his breath. "He's digging."

"I know."

"And you're letting him."

She stopped walking. "What are you really afraid of, Fenrir?"

He didn't answer at first. Then:

"I don't know what's changing in you. But I can feel it. And I don't want to lose you to someone else's game."

The words struck something in her core. An emotion she couldn't parse. She placed a hand gently on his forearm.

"I'm not gone, Fen. Not yet."

That night, she isolated herself in her quarters. No lights. No music. Just the cold hum of the tower around her.

Her mind kept returning to that beat Dray tapped. She ran it through every known database, every cipher, every old military cadence.

And then the result blinked in.

Translation Detected: Code 19—Ghost Protocol Activation

A pre-Fall encryption, used by rogue AI fragments during the early virus wars. It meant one thing:

Hidden operatives online. Stealth mode engaged. Await contact.

Elira didn't know who it was meant for. Dray? Vranos? Or… her?