Ultimatum

Zac leaned forward in his penthouse, city lights cutting through glass walls. His neural implant hummed, a low buzz in his skull, as he loaded Li Xinyu's data, a neural key from his Luminex exec days. The air smelled of ozone, thick with unspoken questions.

He linked to Zenith's servers, his implant sparking, data streams flooding his senses. Zenith's digital system opened, a web of code and signals, screens in his mind pulsing steady. Li's presence locked in, clear, digital, his voice smooth through the link. "Zac. You're calling late."

Zac kept his voice even, grief locked tight. "Upload failures, Li. Mira's gone. How many others?"

Li's signal held, his tone calm, professional, like their old Luminex days. "You know the system, Zac. Zenith's stability comes first. Failures don't leave records." The words landed heavy, a quiet truth.

Zac's jaw clenched, his implant warm with the link's strain. "She was twelve, Li. You buried kids to keep Zenith clean. I need the numbers." Static hissed, Li's pause measured. "You signed the trials, Zac. Pushed the tech. We both made choices."

Zac's chest tightened, data streams lagging, his implant struggling to sync with Zenith's system. Without a full upload, the link was shaky, good for words but not for cracking the core, unlike Li's proper upload.

He pushed on, voice steady. "Mira's fragments are in Zenith, Li. I need the truth."

Li's voice stayed flat, AIs buzzing soft, their scans scraping Zac's implant. "Fragments are junk, Zac. Scattered code, nothing to pull. Keep digging, and your sister's status tanks, her family drops to the lower tiers. Not to mention I could name you, every trial you pushed, every bug you let slide. You have to adhere to your arranged upload to Zenith as a board member.

Zac's breath hitched, static loud in his skull. His sister's laugh, Mira's smile, burned in his head. The Pit was Li's prison, a digital cage for those who crossed him, held tight for whatever he needed later. No fragments there, just punishment, and Zac's trial signatures left him wide open.

He held Li's signal, eyes on the city's glow. "You're hiding bodies," he said, low, controlled. Li's voice didn't flinch. "Upload, Zac. Or it's over." The connection cut, Zenith's hum dead, screens blank.

Zac woke hard in the Pit, rusted walls caging him, the mesh's static raw on his nerves. Decay hit like a fist, his implant buzzing faint. A Returner reply pinged, Tera's relay alive, tied to Luna's code, Starless roof, second step.

Luna's voice sliced through, sharp. "Zac, relay's up. Tera's connected, partial link." Marcus grumbled, doubtful, Diana's calm holding steady, Eleanor and Jin eyeing the mesh. Luna added, "Tera's outside, not uploaded. Sync's rough, but she's in the channel." A glitch flickered, jagged, AIs sniffing Tera's breach. Li's grip, rooted in Zenith, tightened. The channel held, Tera's signal solid, an avatar started loading in.