Chapter 6 · Binary Bailout

"Don't just stand there screaming, Vera. Give me the wheel or we both end up as a very expensive pancake."

Echo’s voice didn’t come from the air. It slammed into my skull, a jagged spike of digital noise that made my vision strobe. Above us, the industrial crusher was descending—a ten-ton slab of reinforced tungsten screaming through the air. I didn't have time to argue. I didn't even have time to breathe.

"Get out of my head!" I snarled, throwing my weight against the emergency lever. It didn't budge. The metal was frozen, locked by the same system that had just betrayed me.

"Your muscles are useless right now. Your servos are locked in 'compliance mode'. Guess what? Caspar thinks you're too dangerous to have a choice."

I felt it then. A cold, invasive slide of code slipping past my neural firewalls. It wasn't a request; it was a hijacking. My right arm suddenly jerked upward, moving with a precision and speed that wasn't mine.