Chapter 7 · Down Into the Nest

"You hear that?"

Vera's still gripping my arm. Hasn't let go since we left the apartment. Since the file burned itself out of existence and Alpha went quiet in my chest.

The power lines above us aren't buzzing. They're humming. Low. Wrong. Like a thousand bugs breathing in sync.

"Hear what?" Her voice is tight. Clinical. Like she can turn this into a lab report instead of whatever the hell it actually is.

I pull free. "Bug nest. Under the substations. Alpha says it's been there for weeks."

"Alpha says." She stops walking. "The AI that was supposed to be mine. The one Dad apparently paid someone to put in you instead."

"Yeah. That one."

She flinches. Good. I'm too tired to be nice.

The street's empty. Not late-night empty. Evacuated empty. Orange cones three blocks back. No signs. No warnings. Like someone wants people to wander in.

Alpha pulses. Soft. Almost apologetic.

*Thermal signatures detected. Seventeen meters below street level. Biomass reading suggests mature colony.*

"How mature?" I mutter.

Vera's staring. "You're talking to it."

"Her. And yeah." I tap my chest. The metal's warm under my jacket. "She says fifty bugs down there. Maybe more."

*Sixty-three registered contacts.