She boarded a train, which the ride was long enough for Vanessa to second-guess herself. Yet, she didn't. Vanessa arrived at an underground co-working lab that was run by a friend with looser ethics and stronger firewalls.
"What's this?" the friend asked Vanessa with creased brows.
Vanessa paused her lips. "Don't ask."
He plugged it in.
The file pulsed once -- just once -- before opening a text window. There was no interface and no fanfare. It was just Vale's voice that filtered through the computer's speakers.
'If this message is playing, you've either become something I've built, or you're still searching for me.'
'There are no accidents now. There are only players who don't realize that they're already on the board.'
Vanessa glared at the screen. Her eyes, unmoving.
'And if you're wondering whether I'm still Vale Holmes...'
The file glitched and that made Vanessa jerk. Then, it stabilized.
'You're asking the wrong question.'
The window closed itself. And the file deleted.
All that remained on the screen after the self-termination was a final line:
'Holmes was never one man.'
Confusion overwhelmed both of them as they stared at the screen.
***
The cafe was the kind that didn't have menus. The kind of place where the staff already knew your coffee, your secrets, and where to bury the evidence. Conversations here were never casual. They were intentional -- something akin to currency.
Vale -- or rather, Elias Axe, was precisely two minutes early. He chose to seat facing the door, where the light hit his profile just enough to make him look stately, however, not revealing too much. His suit that day was charcoal-black, textured and cut to mute movements. A tie graced his shirt which costed more than most people's phones. The expression Vale Holmes wore was unreadable.
Across from Vale sat Mr. Callas Wood.
He was ex-military and the current board advisor for Core Industries. He was a man who looked like he'd shaken hands with both presidents and mercenaries. Yet, he had an aloof look about him.
"You're younger than I expected," Callas said, sipping a drink so dark it might have been brewed in classified documents.
"Age is a liability only when you're the one aging," Elias replied smoothly.
Callas studied him closely through grey eyes. "Nexus R," he said slowly. "No public profile. No press. No footprint. That usually means either brilliance or bankruptcy."
Elias smiled just enough to suggest both. "I represent future liquidity," he said.
"Yours, if you choose well."
Callas scoffed and leaned back with an eyebrow raised. "Is that a threat?"
"A forecast," Elias said. "I don't threaten. I just show people he rain before they drown in it. Something like what Noah in the Holy Book did."
There was a pause. The kind that lives at the bottom of deep waters.
Callas finally asked, "Why reach out to me?"
"Because..." Elias began as he brought out an engraved chip and slid it across the table. "You're the only person on Core's board who is not in bed with York's Dynamics. And because your loyalty, unlike theirs, still has a price."
Callas glanced at the chip, then at Elias. "You think I'm disloyal?"
"I think you're tired of being surrounded by amateurs."
Callas smirked. Yet, his eyes remained firm, never leaving Elias for one moment.
"You play a dangerous game, Mr. Axe."
Elias lifted his cup. "That's the only kind worth playing."
At that moment, his phone buzzed. However, it was not his real phone. It was the ghost line. A message flashed on the screen:
'It has been accessed. Your shadow's waking.'
Vale didn't flinch. He was very much aware.
He rose to his feet, adjusted his sleeve and gave Callas a nod.
"You'll find the contract inside the chip. One condition... burn it after reading."
Callas said nothing. He sat there with his fingers intertwined and he chip between two of them.
***
Vale stood in his penthouse facing the projection wall. For the first time, the System was quiet but not idle.
'Access Log - Error'
'Directory Not Found'
'Override attempted: Unauthorized Access Detected'
Vale's jaw tightened, showing rippling muscles at the side of his face.
"System," Vale said evenly, "who accessed my architecture?"
Silence.
After some moments, 'Unknown user. Root-level clearance. Ghost tier.'
Ghost tier. Vale was quite confused.
Neither the System nor Malcom had mentioned anything about a ghost tier. It wasn't in the blueprints and archives. Not even in the glitch-records from the Unit experiments. This was something new.
Vale reached for the internal debugger, only to find it had been relocated.
Rather, rewritten.
Someone had rewritten part of the System while he was inside it.
Vale opened the last pulse log. One phrase repeatedly slid swam across the lines of code:
'He sees you now.'