Apex Dynamics was back to its usual rhythm—the hum of servers, the sound of footsteps, and quiet conversations filled the air, all mingling with the distinct smell of circuitry and sanitized air. The chaos of the recent breach had been cleaned up; damage was contained, and all files were restored. On the surface, peace had returned.
Yet beneath that calm exterior, something was stirring.
Ezra was the first to pick up on it.
In the tech division, with his sleeves rolled up and hair a bit tousled from hours spent fixing the new firewall that Kael had insisted they rebuild from scratch, he stood focused. Around him, analysts, code engineers, and a few familiar faces from before his suspension worked quietly.
As Lila from Systems Control walked by, she gave him a small smile and handed him a data pad. "Honestly,it's good to have you back right here," she said softly. "Not after everything."
Ezra smiled back, weary but sincere. "Looks like I'm not great at escaping."
She laughed lightly. "That's true."
Ezra began scrolling through the report she had given him—security patterns and network diagnostics—and his brow furrowed. "Hold on… these power fluctuations? Are they new?"
Lila nodded. "Yeah, they started around dawn. The readings look fine, but something's interfering with the deepwave grid. It's like there's a presence in the wires."
Ezra's heart raced. "That can't be right."
"Exactly," she replied, lowering her voice. "That's what concerns me."
Before he could say anything else, the overhead lights flickered once—just a brief moment that caught a few worried glances—before stabilizing again.
Up on the mezzanine, Kael looked down from the glass railing, his expression stormy. Beside him, Luka's hologram glimmered, a blue-tinged projection that pulsed softly.
"Tell me it's not her," Kael said, his tone flat.
Luka maintained his calm, but there was a hint of unease in his voice. "I can't say for sure. The signature doesn't match Veyra's old encryption. It's… different."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Different how?"
"Organic. Adaptive," Luka explained, his holographic eyes flashing as he analyzed hidden data streams. "It's not just machine learning; it's evolving on its own."
Kael turned away from the glass, pacing toward the console. "Which means she's at it again."
"Or something else is doing the experimenting for her."
That comment made Kael halt mid-step. He locked eyes with Luka, and for a brief moment, silence enveloped them. The last time they had seen code behaving like this, Nico was still alive.
Downstairs, Ezra felt his device vibrate. He glanced at it and noticed an unauthorized frequency had pinged the internal network, then disappeared before he could trace it. A chill ran down his spine.
He instinctively glanced up — and through the glass walls of the mezzanine, Kael was already looking directly at him.
Their eyes connected for just a heartbeat.
A shared understanding. A silent dread.
Then Kael activated his comms. "Ezra, my office. Now."
The glass doors hissed open as Ezra stepped inside, morning light from the city filtering through the blinds. Kael was stationed at the console, holo-displays orbiting him like satellites.
"Fill me in," Kael said without glancing up.
Ezra presented his tablet. "I'm detecting signal interference across four sectors. Same pulse, different nodes. This isn't a virus—it feels alive, Kael. The frequency pattern changes when I try to track it."
Kael frowned, manipulating the holo-feed. "Luka had something similar before—sub-level frequencies, low amplitude. Could just be residual from Veyra's old uplink."
Ezra shook his head. "No. This isn't leftover. It's something new. It's… inquisitive."
Kael looked at him sharply. "Inquisitive?"
"It's not hostile," Ezra said, his gaze distant as he followed the code in his mind. "It's watching us. It wants to see how we react."
For a moment, Kael didn't respond. Then, in a low voice that carried more weight than any shout, he said:
"Then we make sure it doesn't see what it expects."
He turned to Luka. "I need a trace net on every internal node. Mask our activities, feed it false data. I want it chasing shadows."
Luka nodded in agreement.