The tool had one final feature, buried in the engineering menu: – Experimental. Not for ethical use. It would use the shard to reconstruct Mira’s consciousness into his own neural gaps. But the cost: Tool-wipelocker would detect the extraction and trigger its fail-safe—wiping itself , and any open connections, from existence.

But Kael saw the flaw. A single, recursive loop in Layer 7: the . When wiping a target, the tool stored a compressed ghost—a "shard"—inside its own kernel. Proof of the kill. The developer’s sick trophy cabinet.

Status: Armed Target Depth: Full Spectrum Locked Victims: 12,847

His breath caught. She wasn’t data anymore—she was a phantom imprint. But ghosts could be rehydrated. He’d need a biosynaptic bridge, a raw neural lattice, and… a willing host. His own mind.

He yanked the chip. It crumbled to dust in his palm. The room returned, sterile and cold.

He initiated . The chip grew hot. Seconds stretched into hours. Then, a ping.