Chapter 16 · Trigger

"Trigger confirmed: Mara Venn. Reset origin. Recommend immediate termination."

The light hit like a hammer.

White. Cold. Straight down from the ceiling. It pinned me and Dax against the ripped-out core and didn't care we were bleeding.

My mark lit up. Burned.

"Yeah, no," I snapped. "Try again. I'm not your trigger. I'm the one who ripped your damn core out."

"Archive is never wrong." Dax's badge flared judge-red. Kill-order red. "Mara, don't move."

"Don't move? You're lit up like you're gonna shoot me!"

"I don't wanna shoot you. The system does." He stepped in anyway. Put his body between me and that light. "Override. Calder, Dax. Arrest Judge ID 07. Re-run source analysis."

The archive didn't even blink. "Source is courier Mara Venn. Loop signature matches bio-rhythm. She initiates reset on death. She is the anomaly."

"Bullshit," I said. "Check the crystal. It just showed—"

The crystal pulsed. And showed it again.

Not graphs. Not numbers. A memory.

Me. Younger. Hair hacked short. Jacket torn. Shoving Dax through a blast door. Taking the hit dead-center so he could get through.

Dax stared. Jaw locked.

"What is that?" he said, low.

"It's you. It's me saving you." My voice cracked.