No User Novels & Stories

Just ten digits. Her heart began beating faster. “Okay,” she muttered under her breath, forcing herself upright. “Let’s see who you really are.” She opened her laptop and typed the number into a search engine. Nothing. No results. No business listing. No social media. No records at all. Her brows furrowed. “That’s impossible.” Everyone had something online. Everyone left traces. She tried another website—one of those reverse phone lookup services that usually dug up embarrassing details about people’s addresses and relatives.

One that none of them had expected. Unknown Access Detected. Nathan's smile disappeared. He looked at the screen again. A new user had just entered the Covenant Network. Using credentials... That belonged to Magnus Obiora himself.

I say taking the glass of water he offers me “When I was getting hurt more frequently, I was having more problems healing from it so I had no choice but to go to the clinic but obviously I needed to stay under the radar. Nurse June understood, when I eventually explained that I was evasive because it would make my situation worse if she knew too much. She never pushed, she just healed me and then talked Dr Woods into also treating me secretly, so my family didn’t know I was getting help. She is an amazing woman. Unmated, 23 years old, about 5 foot 9. Not poor, not transient, not a prostitute and for sure not a drug user.” I am adamant about the last parts.

Three accounts had become amber nodes over time. But eventually… All their permissions converged into a single destination. A user account with no assigned owner. The name made Dani’s stomach drop. SERVICE-ROOT: MAINTENANCE-GHOST Noah read it twice. “That’s not a real department.” “No,” Dani said. “It’s a service layer account.” “What does that mean?” “It means it’s not supposed to belong to anyone.” Silence filled the lab. Because they all understood the implication. If someone controlled a service root account…

— lazy, arrogant, exactly what I was counting on. I didn’t hesitate. I typed my name. “Vale, Remy.” Hit enter. The screen loaded slower than I wanted. Every second felt like a bullet chamber spinning. Then it came up. Contract #STL-8891 Surrogate: Vale, Remy (DOB: 4/12/2005) Donor: Anonymous (Sterling Trust) Gestation: Twin Status: ACTIVE Payment 1: $600,000 – PAID Payment 2: $600,000 – ON HOLD