Vanessa's hands moved fast across her datapad, trying to find hidden information within the lines of code.
The parasitic signal was moving. Every time she thought she had it trapped, it escaped easily. Whatever this thing was, it was smart.
Too smart to be just a tracking program.
"Found you," she whispered, finally finding the signal's true source.
Then she wished she hadn't.
The data that came back made her feel scared. She ran the analysis three times, hoping she made a mistake. But the results were the same every time.
"Guys," she said, her voice tight. "I think we have a problem. A really big problem."
Ariana was keeping watch at the chamber's entrance, holding her sword ready to fight. "Bigger than an enemy fleet tracking us across the galaxy?"
"Yeah. Much bigger." Vanessa brought up the signal's code structure. "This isn't just a tracker. It's piece of someone's mind, turned into digital code and weaponized."
