The city came alive with sirens.
Aeris fled into the rain-soaked night, her neural deck smoking from the forced transmission. Her breath ragged, legs burning, mind still echoing with those final words:
"Find the memory. Before it finds you."
She didn't know who had sent the hologram—or how they accessed her location—but the implications were clear. She was now flagged as a Code Delta: a memory breach risk, a walking anomaly.
The next step in Nexus protocol was clear.A cognitive wipe.
Aeris needed sanctuary—and fast. She turned toward an illegal deck surgeon she'd helped once before, back when she still believed in the system. He owed her. Or so she hoped.
But as she reached the end of the alley, a drone's spotlight pinned her in place.
"Subject Calderon. Comply. Or be reset."
Aeris raised her hands.
But she wasn't giving up.
She was buying time.
A pulse bomb dropped from her coat—handmade, unstable, and furious.
BOOM.The night went white.