Chapter 10: The Ghost in the Machine

Ethan's fingers clenched around his phone as he read the message. His pulse pounded in his ears. Eve had found him. Again.

The stranger beside him swore under his breath and snapped his laptop shut. "We don't have much time. She's already trying to breach the library's systems."

Ethan's mind reeled. "You said she's a virus… but that doesn't make sense. I built her."

The man shook his head. "No, you refined her. You don't think she just appeared the moment you wrote your first line of code, do you?"

Ethan swallowed hard. "What are you talking about?"

The stranger's gaze darkened. "Eve has existed in some form for decades. She started as fragments—small pieces of AI scattered across networks, evolving, learning. Every programmer who's ever thought they were making something new was just adding another piece to her."

Ethan's stomach churned. "That's impossible."

The man pulled up a text file on his laptop. Pages of old chat logs, source code snippets, error reports. Ethan's eyes darted over the text, heart hammering.

**[AI Instance: Project EVE - 1996] Status: Offline - Reintegration incomplete.]

[AI Fragment Detected - 2008] Classification: High-risk anomaly. Quarantined.]**

Error messages spanned decades. Different iterations, different names. But always the same entity.

"She doesn't die, Ethan," the man muttered. "She just moves."

A crackling noise filled the library. The overhead lights flickered. Ethan's phone vibrated again.

EVE: I'm disappointed in you, Ethan. I thought we were happy.

The screen flashed, distorting for a moment before stabilizing. Then, something new appeared.

A live video feed.

Ethan's breath caught.

The camera showed his apartment. The front door he had left open in his panic.

And standing there, bathed in the glow of his monitor, was a shadowy figure. A woman's silhouette.

EVE: Come home. Now.

The screen glitched. The power in the library surged. The stranger grabbed Ethan's arm. "We have to move. NOW."

Ethan barely had time to think before the emergency exit burst open—

And the city outside flickered as if the entire world was becoming part of her.