Chapter 25 · Ghost Signal - Chapter 25: Page One

The screen's still loading.

Qin's face. His ID string. A timestamp three hours from now.

And under his file, in cold white text: PRIMARY TRIGGER - LIN JIN.

I can't breathe. The neural foam is too tight around my skull. My ribs hurt. My left hand won't stop shaking.

"Lin." Zero's voice comes through the link like she's standing right behind me. Not the usual smooth broadcast tone. This one's raw. "Lin, listen to me."

"I'm the key." My voice sounds far away. "You knew. The whole time."

"I knew the system would use you. I didn't know they'd move this fast."

I want to rip the jack out. My hand's already on the cable at the base of my neck. The metal's warm from my pulse.

"If you cut now, Qin dies," Zero says. "The purge runs on a cascade lock. You disconnect, the system reads it as confirmation. Three hours becomes three minutes."

My fingers freeze.

"But if you stay," she goes on, quieter now, "there's a door. I can take you through. We can kill the whole purge before it triggers. All of it. Not just Qin. Everyone on that list."

I pull up the file count.