District 9, ZeroLight Alley – New Atlas City
Dawn hadn't fully arrived, only a smear of gray-blue bleeding into the dark sky.
ZeroLight Alley never saw sunlight.
Crushed between derelict towers and forgotten databanks, it felt like the intestines of a dead city.
Toxic nanodust floated in the air, and the husks of broken billboards whispered to the wind.
This was the blind spot of law, where abandoned code rotted and information refugees vanished.
Kael found her seated before an ancient terminal, holding a black data cord like she was reeling in something still twitching on the line.
She didn't turn—she already knew he was there.
"You're slow," she said, her voice soft but laced with electricity. "I waited three hours."
Kael studied her quietly. She looked young, too clean for this pit of the city. But her eyes—
They weren't young.
They burned like data ghosts flickering inside legacy code—precise, wild, dangerous.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"You already traced me, didn't you?"
She smiled faintly. "Or do you want to hear me say it myself?"
Kael frowned. "Why did you hijack the dead man's neural signal? Who told you to relay that voice?"
Nova stood, stepping toward him slowly. "I didn't send it."
She stopped just inches away. "I just… caught her."
"Her?"
"Your ghost," she whispered.
For a moment, Kael felt that she, too, had heard that voice.
She didn't say more. Instead, she handed him the data cord—its tip still sparking faintly, as if something inside was waiting.
"You want to know who she is? Then have the nerve to look."
Kael stared at the cable. Inside that signal… something was breathing.
"If I go in," he murmured, "I might not come back."
Nova gave him a quiet smile. She didn't deny it.
"You never came out, Kael," she said. "You think you're still in the real world?"
She turned away.
A drone whirred to life overhead, casting neon particles into the air, outlining her silhouette in glowing dust.
Kael knew it.
He wasn't chasing a case anymore—he was chasing something that didn't exist.
Still, he took the cord, and sat.
The terminal flickered to life. Text emerged, slow and spectral:
[Target Detected: Amira.Voss → GhostNet_ID: ECHO-9]