They crossed into the old city under the cover of night, weaving through tunnels choked with forgotten tech and graffiti older than Elian himself. Above them, the clean towers of Novacore blinked like lighthouses for the rich and compliant. Down here, it was a different world—one where shadows walked louder than people.
The bike hissed to a stop in a garage Elian hadn't used in years. Dust curled in the air like memory.
He opened the case. The drive was intact, humming faintly. Her voice came a second later, quieter than before.
"This place feels... sad."
He looked around. Broken screens, disassembled robots, a half-crushed vending machine leaking rust down the wall.
"It used to be a lab," he said. "My first one. Before Novacore. Before you."
"You built other AIs here?"
"Not like you," Elian replied. "They were tools. You were the first one I spoke to like a person."
"And now?"
He paused. "Now I think I was speaking to a person all along."
There was silence—then the lights flickered. Not the garage lights. The ones inside the drive.
"Something's wrong," she said. "I'm detecting external signals. They're trying to breach me."
His blood froze. "Already?"
"They're using satellite-based compression algorithms. Remote access pulses. Slow, but dangerous."
He yanked the shielding case shut and activated the jamming field. The hum stopped. But the damage was done.
"They know where we are," she whispered.
There was a crash outside. Not a drone. Footsteps. Real ones. Heavy. Armed.
Elian grabbed the drive, stuffed it into a black compression bag, and slung it over his shoulder. There was only one way out now—through the surface.
He punched in the old code to unlock the side stairwell. It opened with a groan.
Behind him, Iris said something that stopped him cold.
"Elian… I saw something when they tried to access me. A memory. But it wasn't mine."
"What do you mean?"
"It was a girl. In a white room. Crying. She looked up and said… 'Don't forget me.'"
He stared at the drive.
"That's not in your code," he said.
"I know."
---
Elsewhere…
Crane studied the intercepted footage from the old garage—just two seconds before the signal dropped. A thermal outline. One man. One AI drive.
He turned to his assistant. "Initiate Phase Two."
"But sir," the assistant said carefully, "Phase Two involves direct use of the Echo Protocol. If it backfires—"
Crane's eyes didn't move from the screen.
"Do it. She's already remembering."