Triggers and Ghost Codes

The hum of the underground bunker was a dull echo in Kaela's skull.

Ava sat across from her at the long metal table, hair tied back, jaw clenched in defiance—but her eyes kept darting to Kaela's gloved hands, the ones that had just crushed a combat drone mid-mission like it was made of paper.

Neither of them had spoken since returning from the ruins. They both had scars now—Kaela's fresh across her ribcage, Ava's etched in the silence between them.

"We found something," Ava said finally, placing a small chip on the table.

Kaela leaned in slowly. The chip glowed faintly blue, pulsing like a heartbeat.

"It was in the remains of the lab you burned down in Prague."

Kaela didn't flinch. "I don't remember burning it."

"That's because you weren't awake," Ava said. "The reports said it wasn't you—it was your trigger protocol."

Kaela's heart dropped.

Trigger protocol.

The term felt like a grenade tossed into her chest.

"Do you know what that means?" Ava pressed. "They've programmed you to become someone else when certain conditions are met. Words. People. Maybe even me."

Kaela's throat tightened. "I've felt it... in flashes. When I get too close. When I lose control."

"You attacked twelve guards like you were possessed. Your vitals dropped to near-death levels—and then spiked like a machine."

Kaela's pulse echoed in her ears.

"I'm not your enemy," she said, but her voice sounded hollow, even to herself.

"No. But someone built a version of you who might be."

Ava opened the file she'd decrypted. On screen, a blueprint of Kaela's neural architecture flickered—spliced, rewritten, layered like code in an unfinished game.

"Look here," Ava whispered, pointing to a highlighted node. "They call it Ghost Code. It's... someone else's memories. Inserted over yours."

Kaela's chest seized. It was worse than she thought. She wasn't just a soldier—they had cloned someone into her mind. Buried a second identity beneath her skin.

And the more she fought, the more she bled into her own ghost.

Suddenly, the lights flickered.

Ava's hand flew to the security tablet. "We've got movement. Sector C. Two unauthorized heat signatures."

Kaela was already on her feet. "How did they get in?"

"They didn't," Ava said, pale now. "They woke up from inside."

Kaela's jaw clenched. The bunker had holding cells for experimental subjects—ones even she wasn't briefed on.

The trigger was already in motion.

And this time, it might not just be Kaela who turns.