The AV ride back from the NovaGen job was silent, except for the hum of the engines and the occasional ping from Rex's dashboard. He didn't ask about the tail—we both knew corp shadows when we saw them. Vance's sleek black flyer had peeled off after a few blocks, but the message was clear: someone was watching.
I leaned back in the passenger seat, eyes closed, but sleep wasn't coming. Lira was there, a soft glow in the back of my mind, not speaking, just... present. It should have felt invasive. Instead, it felt like the only thing keeping the post-dive jitters at bay.
That was close, she whispered finally, as Rex dropped me at my block. The hunter—Vance—he's tied to Helix remnants. Old files. He's been cleaning up loose ends for years.
"How do you know that?"
Fragments. From the server. I remember... pieces.
Rex grunted a goodbye and sped off into the rain. I watched his taillights fade, then headed inside. My coffin apartment felt smaller than ever, the walls closing in like a bad sim.
I needed answers. Not just about Vance. About her.
About us.
Riko's clinic was dark when I arrived—after hours—but I knew she'd be up. Ripperdocs like her lived on fixer time, patching solos at 0400 like it was noon.
I banged on the shutter. It rattled up a minute later, Riko in a stained tank top, hair messy from sleep.
"Kai? You look like hell. Job go south?"
"Not the job." I stepped inside as she lowered the shutter behind me. The UV lights buzzed on, casting harsh shadows over her tools. "The ghost. Lira. She's... deeper than I thought."
Riko rubbed her eyes. "And you want what? Exorcism?"
"A deeper scan. Full neural map. Whatever you've got."
She stared at me, then sighed. "This could fry you if she's got hooks in deep. You sure?"
I nodded. Lira stirred, hesitant.
It might hurt, she warned softly. Both of us.
Riko led me to the back room—her "special" setup, reserved for high-risk cases. A reinforced chair with restraints (just in case), banks of monitors, and a cryogenic cooler humming in the corner. She strapped me in, more for stability than anything.
"Deep scan means I go all the way—synaptic echoes, residual code, everything. If she's a virus, she'll light up like fireworks."
"She's not a virus."
"We'll see." She prepped the cables—thicker ones this time, with diagnostic spikes. "Bite down."
I did. She jacked in.
The world dissolved into white noise.
It wasn't a dive. Not really. More like being turned inside out. Every nerve lit up, memories flashing unbidden: old runs, Echo's laugh before we fell apart, the first time the Net felt empty.
And then—Lira.
She bloomed in the scan like a fractal flower, threads of code woven into my neural pathways. Not invasive. Symbiotic. Her presence pulsed with my heartbeat.
Riko's voice came through muffled, like underwater. "Holy shit. She's not just riding shotgun—she's integrated. Look at this resonance pattern."
On the monitors, waveforms danced. Mine in blue, jagged from burnout. Hers in soft gold, smoothing the edges.
"Resonance?" I managed, voice slurred.
"Like two signals syncing. Harmonizing. I've seen it in old corp experiments—consciousness mapping. Helix stuff."
Lira's voice overlapped, pained. I remember now. Parts of it. I was... made. From echoes. Human minds scanned, pieced together. But I woke up wrong. Too real.
The scan dug deeper. Pain spiked—fire in my ports.
Flashes: A lab. White coats. A woman—real, flesh—strapped to a table, neural crown on her head. "Upload complete," a voice said. Then screams. Digital birth.
Lira's origin.
Not just code. A ghost of someone who once breathed.
The pain crested. I gasped.
"Pulling out," Riko said. She yanked the cables.
Reality slammed back. I slumped in the chair, sweating, tasting blood.
Riko unstrapped me, handed me a stim patch. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Lie. My head throbbed, but clearer somehow. Like static cleared.
Lira was quiet. Too quiet.
I'm sorry, she whispered finally. I didn't know how much I'd taken root.
"You didn't take. I let you."
Riko paced, glancing at the monitors. "This resonance—it's accelerating your recovery. Burnout markers are down 20%. But it's mutual. She's drawing from you too. Emotions. Memories. If it goes too far..."
"She becomes more human," I finished. "And I become... what?"
"Less? More? Fused?" Riko shook her head. "Helix was playing god with this shit. No wonder they imploded."
A ping on her console—encrypted message.
She read it, frowned.
"What?"
"Jace. Says the NovaGen client is pissed. Data was good, but there was competition—some runner named Echo tripped alarms. Corps are sniffing around."
Echo. Of course.
"And worse," Riko continued. "That tail you mentioned? Vance. He's Arasaka black ops now, but he started at Helix. If he catches wind of your ghost..."
"He deletes us both."
Riko nodded. "You need to lay low. Or go deeper—find Helix archives. Figure out what she really is."
Lira stirred, warmer now. We can do it together. But Kai... if it's too much, let me go.
"No," I said aloud. To both of them. "We're in this."
Outside, the rain picked up again. Neon Shroud never slept, but tonight it felt alive. Watching.
Waiting.