Kai didn't sleep.
He sat on the edge of his bed with the data card resting on his palm like it might burn through the skin. Every few minutes, he turned it over, as if a different angle would make it explain itself.
Ghost variables.
Vale's words echoed again and again.
Not monsters.Not criminals.
People.
EXTERNAL INTEREST: CONFIRMEDOBSERVATION PROBABILITY: MODERATE
"Yeah," Kai muttered. "That tracks."
He slid the card into a seam beneath the floor panel—a habit from childhood, back when hiding things had been necessary for survival. Then he stood and stretched slowly, testing his body.
Still sore.Still tired.
Still alive.
That mattered.
He left the apartment before sunrise.
Not to hunt.
Not tonight.
Tonight was for learning how to move.
The city was different at this hour. Quieter. Less pretending. Service drones glided along preset paths, scanners flicking lazily across empty streets.
Kai walked with the flow, head down, posture average. Every instinct screamed to correct himself—to step cleaner, lighter, more efficiently.
He didn't.
Standing out was a mistake.
At the corner near the warehouse, he felt it again.
That pressure.
Not watching.
Tracking.
PREDATOR INSTINCT — ALERTTHREAT TYPE: ORGANIZED
Kai's jaw tightened.
That wasn't the Wild Zone.
He kept walking.
The pressure followed.
Two blocks.Then three.
No footsteps. No reflection in windows. No heat signature he could pinpoint.
Professional.
Kai ducked into a narrow service alley, letting the shadows swallow him. He counted to five, then pivoted sharply—
Nothing.
But the pressure didn't vanish.
It adjusted.
HOST IS TARGETED FOR CLASSIFICATION
Classification.
The word felt cold.
"You don't classify things you plan to ignore," Kai whispered.
He stepped out of the alley and merged back into foot traffic just as a public transport tram roared past, momentarily drowning everything else out.
The pressure disappeared.
Kai didn't slow down.
He didn't look back.
He just memorized the feeling.
The day passed slowly.
Too slowly.
At work, he kept to himself, moved crates, nodded when spoken to. Hale didn't yell. That alone made Kai uneasy.
At lunch, the cracked tablet feed showed a different headline:
UNREGISTERED WILD ZONE ACTIVITY — SECTOR D9STATUS: UNDER REVIEW
Kai didn't breathe until the screen changed.
"Probably animals," someone said. "System glitches happen."
Kai smiled faintly and kept eating.
Night came.
21:42.
Kai stood on the platform of the old Grey Line station, its lights flickering like they couldn't decide whether to stay on. The place had been decommissioned years ago—too close to the Barrier, too many sensor blind spots.
Which explained why Vale chose it.
ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT: LOWSYSTEM INTERFERENCE: HIGH
"Convenient," Kai murmured.
Footsteps echoed.
Vale emerged from the far stairwell, coat unbuttoned, hands empty again. She stopped a few meters away.
"You came," she said.
"You said you'd stop protecting my file if I didn't."
Vale nodded. "That wasn't a bluff."
Kai crossed his arms. "So what am I?"
Vale studied him carefully this time. Not as an inspector.
As a researcher.
"We hunt what we call ghosts," she said. "People whose genetic data doesn't reconcile with the public system. Some are accidents. Some are experiments that outlived their creators."
"And some?" Kai asked.
Vale's eyes sharpened.
"Some are evolutions that shouldn't exist yet."
Silence filled the station.
Kai felt the Adaptive Core stir, slow and deliberate.
"Let me guess," he said. "Most of them don't get a happy ending."
"No," Vale said honestly. "Most get dissected."
That word landed hard.
"But not by us," she added quickly. "By divisions that don't knock first."
Kai laughed quietly. "Comforting."
Vale reached into her coat again—this time pulling out a slim bracelet.
"Wear this," she said, holding it out. "It masks low-level anomalies. Buys time."
"Why help me?" Kai asked.
Vale didn't answer right away.
Then: "Because the system is afraid of things it can't cap."
She stepped closer and lowered her voice.
"And because if you survive long enough, you might show us what comes after."
Kai stared at the bracelet.
Then took it.
The moment it touched his skin, the interface pulsed.
EXTERNAL DEVICE DETECTEDEVALUATION: NON-HOSTILEEFFECT: ANOMALY DAMPENING (MINOR)
"Good," Kai said. "I'd hate to be easy."
Vale smiled thinly.
"Don't worry," she replied. "You're not."
She turned toward the stairs.
"One more thing," she said over her shoulder. "If you go back out tonight…"
Kai met her gaze.
"Don't hunt like prey," Vale finished. "They're watching how you adapt."
She left.
The station lights flickered again.
Kai stood alone, bracelet warm against his wrist, city rumbling above him.
"They hunt ghosts," he whispered.
The Adaptive Core pulsed.
Slow.Patient.
Hungry.
"Good," Kai said softly. "I was starting to feel lonely."
[End of Chapter 9]