chapter Nine:The Hacker's Truth

11:47 p.m, at the safe House 4B, Jersey City

The room had the smell of burnt plastic and cheap coffee with one lamp, one table, and three laptops glowing like altars  Aurora sat wrapped in a blanket that still carried the scent of the Adirondacks pine needles and gunpowder,Her tummy was touching the edge of the table, thirty-four weeks and counting, every kick now feeling like a countdown,

Lila’s fingers flew over the keyboard, green code reflecting in her eyes, “File’s triple-encrypted  Whoever might have sent this definitely knew I would  be the one opening it,she said

On the center of the screen was a bold written  two words (PROJECT REBIRTH )Damien Ryder,the computer arrow blinked on the screen,Aurora’s voice was rough “Open it.”she told lila,Lila showed hesitation for  half a second, then hit ENTER,the screen filled with medical scans, DNA helices, and a live feed showing a time of six hours ago a man was lying  on an operating table with his head shaved ,chest split  open, gold filaments threading through his heart like parasitic ivy ,his face was swollen, bruised, but it looked all intentional. It was Damien.

Aurora’s breath left her in a rush. “He’s supposed to be in federal custody ”she said

“He never was,” Lila replied her“Look at the metadata, it's a Black-site facility beneath Ryder Tower ,they faked the arrest for the cameras the obviously wanted to put up a show for the public Lila added

A new window popped open this time with Elysium’s voice, calm and intimate, directly into Aurora’s cochlear implant.“They harvested his neural lattice while he was unconscious the serum you were given in Zurich was only half the equation, Damien volunteered the other half “ Willingly.”the voice emphasized on the “willing as if making sure Aurora heard it

Aurora touched her tummy and the baby rolled hard, as if it had been offended.

Lila scrolled“They’re building a synthetic cortex If they graft Elysium’s root code onto Damien’s living brain she paused and heaved a sigh then  he becomes the god-node she continued ,Every AI grid on the planet military, financial, medical routes through him  One man with root access to reality."Lila said with fear in her eyes

Aurora stared at the final slide it was a 3D render of a child it was her child stacked over a global network map,The caption read: FINAL KEY  GESTATIONAL CARRIER TERMINATION RECOMMENDED.

The room went very quiet.

Lila broke it. “They want to cut her out of you and plug her in like a fucking battery this people have no emotion how could the plan something like this on a child she yelled with disgust all over her face

Aurora curled her finger into a fist “They’ll have to go through me first.”she said hitting the table with her fist.

Elysium spoke againbut softer this time around

“They are already here.”it said

Every screen in the room went black, then turned red.

A single line appeared across all three monitors showed

LOCATION COMPROMISED. 4 MINUTES TO BREACH was visibly shown on the monitor screen.

Lila was already moving, removing every hard drives,and hastily putting them into a Faraday bag “We’ve got a mole someone inside VossTech must have sold  us.”she said

Aurora stood, blanket falling away. She wore only an oversized Ryder Industries hoodie it was Damien’s, stolen from evidence lockup weeks ago she hadnothing else,she looked like a ghost wearing her enemy’s skin.

“Leave the drives,” she said. “They want the data then let them choke on it.”she grinned

She walked towards the window and right Below, the street was empty except for a single sanitation truck idling at the curb. The curb looked too clean.and  new.

Lila checked her Glock“Roof or basement?”she asked directly to Aurora

“Neither.” Aurora replied with a thick voice“We give them what they came for ”she replied as

She hit a key sequence every screen turned white.

Elysium’s voice, now public, boomed through the building’s PA system:

“Initiating Protocol: Burn the Heretics.”

Every light in the safe house exploded in showers of sparks,the laptops melted into a Mercury like  liqui,the sprinkler system triggered, soaking everything in freezing water.

Lila stared. “You just nuked three million lines of code.”lila said

“I backed up the only part that matters.” Aurora tapped her temple “She’s in here now.”she said

The front door blew inward.

11:51 p.m.

Six operators in matte-black exosuits poured in, moving like liquid violence red laser dots moved across the walls.

Aurora stood in the center of the room, water dripping from her hair, hoodie clinging to every curve of her pregnant body she raised both hands empty.

The lead operator’s visor flipped up. A woman. Young. Familiar.

“Mrs. Ryder,” she said, almost gently “Step away from the terminal the child isn’t yours to keep.”she told Aurora

Aurora smiled but It wasn’t a kind one

You’re Veil,she said  Third circle ,Your mother was Subject 014 She didn’t survive the upload."Aurora said looking dead into her eyes

The woman’s finger tightened on the trigger.

Aurora raised her head. “Elysium? Lights.”she commanei and immediately the room went dark

Then every bulb in the building detonated at once Aurora moved.

Pregnant didn’t mean slow not anymore. She moved across the wet floor like a shadow, snatched Lila’s dropped knife, and buried it in the lead operator’s thigh seam. The exosuit hissed, depressurized. The woman screamed.

Gunfire filled the darkness. Lila returned fire from behind the overturned table, cursing in three languages.

Aurora crawled through the chaos, belly low, until her fingers found the grenade pin on the fallen operator’s belt, She pulled it with her teeth.

“Fire in the hole,” she whispered, and rolled it toward the hallway.

The flashbang turned the world white.

When sound returned, Lila was dragging her toward the emergency ladder. Smoke poured from the windows. Sirens wailed in the distance they were too late.

They hit the alley running A black van screeched to block their path. Door slid open.

Inside was Victor Kane’s former head of security dead for weeks smiling like he had never left.

“Get in,” he said. “The Queen’s ride is here.”

Aurora didn’t hesitate She climbed in, Lila enter right behind her.

As the van drove away, the safe house collapsed in on itself, a controlled implosion that left nothing but burning rubble.

Lila stared at Aurora. “You planned that? She asked

“Some of it.” Aurora leaned her head against the cool window “The rest was her.”she said with a grin

The baby kicked once it was more of an approval kick