Chapter 20 · You Signed It

Ryan stared at the screen. His own hands. His own thumbprint on the consent log.

"That's impossible," he said, but his voice came out flat. Not even convincing himself.

Erica leaned back, arms crossed. "Timestamp matches the night you walked out of Natasha's clinic. Three-seventeen AM. You were alone in the recovery suite for nine minutes. Long enough."

He tried to remember. Couldn't. Just white walls and the taste of antiseptic and Natasha's voice telling him the rig was stable now. Everything else was fog.

"I wouldn't—"

"You did." She tapped the screen. "Full voluntary install. Self-administered."

Ryan's left hand started to twitch. Not the normal tremor. This was something else. A rhythm. Tap-tap-pause. Tap-tap-pause. He clenched his fist but the muscles kept firing.

"What the hell is that?"

Erica's face went carefully blank. "Signal test. Someone's pinging your rig right now."

Tap-tap-pause.

"Can you trace it?"

"Already did. Bounced through six relays and a corporate VPN cluster. Whoever's on the other end has budget." She closed the file. "And they know you're looking."

Ryan stood. His leg buckled and he caught himself on the table. The current was building in his spine. That pre-burnout buzz he'd learned to fear.