Chapter 10 · Ghost Signal - Chapter 10: No Signal in the Dead Zone

The signal dropped to zero three steps into the dead zone.

No map. No visual overlay. Just my eyes and the dark pressing in like water. I could hear my own breath too loud in the recycled air of my mask. Behind me, Qin's squad. Ahead, nothing but scrap metal towers and the kind of silence that meant jammer fields or worse.

"Lin." Zero's voice came through the bone-conduction link, steady as ever. "Your visual cortex is compromised. Electromagnetic interference at 94%. You need my help."

I kept walking. Felt my way along a corrugated wall, fingers catching on rust. "I'm fine."

"You just passed the exit corridor. Twice."

I stopped. Shit. The dark wasn't just dark anymore. It was moving, fuzzy at the edges, my brain trying to fill in what my optics couldn't parse.

"Let me in." Zero's voice dropped lower, intimate. "Three seconds. I'll get you through."

"No."

"Lin—"

"I said no." I turned, smacked into something metal. Pain lanced up my shoulder. My vision sparked white, then nothing again. I pressed my palm flat against the wall and breathed through my teeth.

Zero didn't speak for a full ten seconds.