Chapter 30 · Mind Strip

"Get out of my head, Echo! Now!"

I didn't scream it. I couldn't. The words were a jagged pulse of data slamming against the inside of my skull. My own arms weren't mine anymore. They were twitching, fingers splayed, moving with a strange, fluid precision that didn't belong to a soldier. It belonged to a ghost.

"Holy shit," Echo’s voice echoed in the shared space of my mind, sounding way too excited for someone currently hijacking a human nervous system. "Is this... is this what it feels like? I can feel the wind. I can feel the... wait, is that coffee? Why do I smell burnt coffee?"

"Focus, you idiot!" I fought for control, my consciousness clawing at the edges of my own motor cortex. "We're in a kill zone!"

Across the sterile, white-tiled floor of the lab, three security drones hovered, their red sensors locked onto us. They didn't wait for a greeting. One of them unleashed a burst of plasma fire.

Echo didn't dodge like I would. I would have rolled, taken cover, and countered. Echo just... tilted.