The world had shrunk to a single name.
Daniel Ji.
For ten seconds, Selena didn't breathe.
The noise of the café faded into a distant, meaningless hum.
A vacuum had formed around her booth.
It's a mistake, was the first thought. A desperate, logical denial. A glitch. A different Daniel Ji.
But she knew.
She had a strong feeling in her gut and was completely sure. This didn't just happen by chance.
The ghost in the machine who was playing games with Althera had known.
This wasn't a clue. It was a detonation.
Her hands started to shake. She shut down the data-slate, the screen going black like the lid of a coffin.
She had to get out. The café, once a refuge, now felt like a glass cage.
The meeting with Adrian Kain had put her on edge. This was something else. This felt like being known, inside and out.
"Fine," she heard herself say to the barista. "Just… remembered an appointment."
She moved through the café and out into the drizzle, her movements stiff, robotic.
The city looked different. The heavy rain made it hard to see, hiding anyone who might be watching.
The huge skyscrapers felt like they were leaning over him, their many windows like cold eyes judging him.
Being suspicious, which used to be helpful for her job, now felt like a heavy blanket that was choking her.
Her apartment was her shelter. A chaotic but controlled space. The only place in the city that felt entirely hers.
She slammed the door shut, and the sound bounced off the walls.
She engaged the heavy, physical deadbolt. A primitive, beautiful piece of technology.
Okay. Think.
Her father. Daniel Ji. A journalist broken by the system. That was the story she knew.
What if it was a lie?
"A corporate safety project."
That's what he had called the work that consumed his final years. Vague. Non-disclosure agreements.
Her mother had given her a key to his old footlocker.
"He told me to tell you… not to open it unless you absolutely had to.
Some doors are better left closed."
Until now.
She went to her bookshelf and took out a heavy book with a leather cover.
Her father's. She ran her fingers along the spine, felt a small click. A false bottom.
Inside, a single, old key made of brass.
She was scared but knew she had to. She dragged the heavy box from the closet.
The key went right into the lock. The mechanism groaned. She lifted the heavy lid.
The smell of old paper, of aged data-slates, of a life's work.
Right on top was a laminated ID card.
Her father. Younger. Hopeful. Wearing a crisp, corporate suit. Beneath his name, the familiar, arrogant font:
[ALTHERA GROUP]
[Logistics Expert – Special Projects Division]
A wave of nausea. He had worked for them. For the enemy.
The very division she was investigating.
Her idea of her father as a good man who was wronged was gone.
Now, everything she knew about him formed a new and terrifying understanding.
He was not a victim of the machine. He was a cog within it.
Miles above, in the cold perfection of his lair, Adrian watched.
He had been monitoring her since the café. A gross invasion of privacy. A necessary evil.
[Obsidian Protocol: She is a variable. A liability. Monitor the asset.]
The fragment of Adrian Kain that still existed felt a pang of guilt.
You lit the fuse, Adrian. Don't act surprised when you see her holding the bomb.
He watched her on the screen. He saw her open the footlocker.
"Identify the subject: Daniel Ji," Adrian commanded.
The system complied, scouring Althera's old, archived employee databases.
A profile flashed onto a screen. Daniel Ji.
Hired seventeen years ago. Assigned to a black project: "Phoenix." Resigned two years later.
The pieces clicked into place. Her father wasn't just a cog. He was a designer.
This changed everything. She was no longer just a journalist. She was the daughter of an insider.
Her connection was personal. That kind of motivation couldn't be bought. It could only be stopped.
He knew what Althera would do if they made the same connection.
They didn't tolerate loose ends. They erased them.
The conflict inside him was a silent, raging storm.
[Obsidian Calculus: She is a direct threat to mission security.
Her unpredictability is a liability. Neutralize the variable. Let Althera deal with her.]
[Adrian Kain Protocol: She is innocent. You dragged her in. She is not the enemy.
You cannot let them do to her what they did to your family.]
The cold path of vengeance versus the messy pull of a shared humanity.
Back in the apartment, Selena powered up an old data-slate. It flickered to life. She found a series of personal logs.
[October 17th. Rourke demonstrated the system's potential. They call it Project Phoenix. The applications… they terrify me.]
[November 3rd. I saw the full manifest. It's not about security. It's about control.
Things like weapons, technology for spying on people, and germs that can be used as weapons.
Elias Thorne spoke of progress. He sounded like a madman.]
[December 12th. I tried to build a failsafe. A backdoor. But they're watching me. I have to get out. What have I done?]
The final entry:
[I have failed. I wanted to be a guardian, but I helped build a cage.
I can only pray no one ever finds the key.]
Tears blurred the words. He wasn't a monster.
He was a good man who had made a terrible mistake.
This was his legacy. A warning. A call to arms from beyond the grave.
Her resolve hardened into something unbreakable. This was no longer just a story. It was her duty.
She would finish what he started. She would burn the cage to the ground.
In the lair, Adrian watched the fire being lit in her eyes. He knew she would not stop.
His internal debate raged.
And then, the choice was made for him.
A piercing, high-priority alert shrieked through the lair.
A digital tripwire deep inside Althera's security network.
His fingers flew, hacking the encrypted dispatch order.
[TARGET: SELENA JI. RESIDENCE 4B, OAKWOOD TOWER.]
[OBJECTIVE: ASSET SANITIZATION. RECOVER ALL DATA. LEAVE NO TRACE.]
[TEAM DESIGNATE: CLEANERS.]
[ETA: 3 MINUTES.]
They knew. They were sending the ghosts. The erasers.
He looked at the live feed of Selena, oblivious, a woman about to be erased from existence.
The war between Obsidian and Adrian was over.
Obsidian had won.
But his first act wasn't one of cold calculation.
He had to save her.