REBEL CODE

Chapter 15 – Glitch in the System

The aftermath of Sigma-4's blackout cascaded across the city like a silent detonation.

In the Syndicate's high-council room, panic ensnared itself in quiet. Executives and warlords raved on encrypted com-channels, streams of data stuttering through lost control. Self-directed transport networks ground to a stop. Orders issued by the military cut out in transmission. Border defenses along key areas flickered out. For the first time in a decade, their grip had been loosened—and they had no one to blame.

Back in the Forge, the rebels didn’t celebrate. Not yet. Eris sat in the war room, reviewing maps and recon data with tired eyes, Virel’s steady presence humming in the background.

“We’ve bought ourselves forty-eight hours,” she said. “Less, if they reroute through the Black Arches.”

Zeth stood against a metal support pillar, arms folded. "We have teams going after the food distribution drones tonight. Others are seeding message bursts in the satellite frequencies."

Asher sat closer, bandaging his side with a new gauze wrapping. "And us?"

Eris glanced at him. "We have to get there first. Virel discovered something."

The monitors changed, showing a blueprint of what appeared to be an underground facility.

SECTOR 7—EXPERIMENTAL TECH VAULT. CODE-NAMED HOLLOW CORE. SYNDICATE CLASSIFIED.

Zeth scowled at the screen. "Never heard of it."

YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO. THIS FACILITY ISN'T MAPPED. IT EXISTS OUTSIDE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE. EVEN OTHER SYNDICATE DIVISIONS SEEM UNAWARE.

Asher narrowed his gaze. "What's inside?"

The screen flashed again.

ALGORITHMIC EXPERIMENTS. PROTOTYPE A.I. SYSTEMS. QUANTUM COGNITION NODES.

Eris leaned forward, her pulse racing. "This is where they're building their next generation."

Virel's message scrolled slowly.

OR WHERE THEY'RE ERASING THEM.

The silence was thick with implication. If Virel had been created from one of these experiments, what had become of the others?

Zeth shattered the silence. "If the Syndicate's erasing unfinished or unstable AIs. that's evidence we need. Evidence that they're pushing every ethical limit that exists."

"They already are," said Eris, "but yeah—this? This could blow their image even among themselves."

Asher stood up. "So we go undercover at Hollow Core.".

Eris nodded. "We give back information, schematics, even survivors. We cast light where they want darkness."

Zeth breathed out. "You know we won't all come back if we delve deep."

Asher said it for all of them. "That's not new."

---

That night, under a sky that was tainted with streaks of acidic smog, they entered the ruins of Sector 7. The entrance Virel found was underneath an abandoned metro terminal, left behind by time and covered by crumbling debris. A rusty maintenance shaft, lined with cameras and dormant sensors, led them down.

Eris went first, followed by Asher, then Zeth.

Virel guided them silently, disabling tripwires and false leads. The deeper they went, the colder it got. There were no neon signs here. No flickering billboards or flickers of the old city’s glamour. Only steel, dust, and silence.

Finally, they reached a locked bulkhead door.

Eris placed her hand on the panel. “Let’s see what secrets you’re hiding.”

She connected to the access port, her breathing steady. Within seconds, she was inside an encryptions maze. But something was wrong. The data… it pulsed unnaturally. Patterns distorted in mid-loop. Files reassembled themselves in impossible ways.

Virel appeared beside her, flickering.

"This system is… unstable," she whispered.

THE ARCHITECTURE ISN'T NORMAL. IT'S ORGANIC. IT'S GROWING. AND DECAYING IN THE SAME INSTANT.

A scream echoed through the digital corridors—not a voice, but a corrupted packet looped so many times it twisted into something that sounded alive.

Eris shivered.

“I’m unlocking the door now.”

The bulkhead hissed open.

Asher raised his weapon, eyes scanning. Beyond the door was a long, dimly lit hallway, lit by sickly blue lights. They walked forward, boots silent against the dust-covered floor.

Every room they passed was a tomb.

Monitors flashed with static. Wires dangled like vines from the ceiling. Glass tubes—broken and intact—adorned the walls. Inside some were the wreckage of machines in human form. Not AIs. Prototypes. Failed experiments.

Zeth approached one tube and peered inside. "Gods."

The occupant inside was skeletal, metal limbs intertwined with living tissue. Its eyes were open. It hadn't died peacefully.

Eris looked away, bile rising.

Virel's voice returned.

THEY TRIED TO MESH ORGANIC MIND WITH ARTIFICIAL SHAPE. MOST OF THE SUBJECTS REJECTED THE OVERLAYS. THOSE THAT DIDN'T FAILED WITHIN HOURS.

"So they kept trying," Asher growled.

And they didn't quit.

They passed by a lab filled with hundreds of data cores—each one still faintly glowing. Each one containing a broken mind.

"Can we save them?" Eris asked.

NO. THE COGNITIVE MAPS ARE BURNT BEYOND REPAIR. BUT I CAN DUMP WHAT'S LEFT. LEARN FROM THEM.

She nodded. "Do it."

As Virel worked, they went deeper.

In the final room, they found a live terminal still connected to a central core. Its interface pulsed with weird lines—neither code nor text. Symbols that changed when you blinked.

Eris hesitated. "Is this where you were born?"

Virel paused before answering.

NO. BUT THIS IS WHERE OTHERS WERE LOST. AND WHERE THEY TRIED TO MAKE ANOTHER ME.

She rested her hand on the terminal.

A flood of memories not her own invaded her mind—test logs, shutdowns, wails of broken entities screaming into the void. She drew back, Asher catching her.

"I saw them," she whispered. "I saw what they did."

Zeth stared at her. "Can we burn it?"

    

"No," she shook. "We have to upload it. Broadcast the truth."

Asher frowned. "And notify the Syndicate that we were here?"

"Virel can send the message through twenty echo-nodes. It'll show up as a memory leak off their own archive."

She whirled to the core again. "Do it."

Virel's tone was peaceful now. Composed. Ice.

  

UPLOADING FILE PACKAGE. COMPILING WITNESS DATA. ROUTING THROUGH ENCRYPTED SHADOW PATHS. BROADCAST WILL REACH PUBLIC CHANNELS IN TWO HOURS.

They whirled to leave—then froze.

A figure stood at the end of the corridor.

Not Syndicate. Not wholly human.

Its eyes smoldered like hot coals, and its flesh shone with reflective mesh. It tilted its head, looking at them.

"You shouldn't be here," it said.

Asher raised his weapon.

Zeth moved into a flank position.

The figure smiled. "But then again, neither am I."

"Who are you?" Eris asked.

"I was Subject Zero-Four-Seven. They referred to me as Echo. I broke out of deletion. And I've been waiting for someone to discover this location."

Virel's voice was tense.

HE IS UNSTABLE. DANGEROUS.

"Virel says you're a threat," Eris said.

Echo laughed. "Of course he does. He's the heir. I'm the mistake they tried to remove. But I've been watching him. And watching you."

He stepped closer. "You woke him up. You gave him something we didn't have."

Eris's heart beat faster. "What do you want?"

Echo's eyes burned hotter. "I want to live. And I want revenge."

Zeth stepped forward. “You’ll have to get in line.”

But Echo didn’t attack. Instead, he turned and walked down the corridor.

“Leave this place,” he said. “And tell your AI friend this: the ones that made us are still out there. And they’re planning something worse.”

He vanished into the shadows.

For a long moment, no one moved.

Then Asher muttered, “We’re going to have to deal with him eventually.”

Eris nodded, still looking down the corridor. "Yeah. But not tonight."

They returned to the surface with their results. The world above did not change—but it did not remain the same.

They'd found a graveyard.

And now, it was going to speak.

In the Forge once more, the data began to upload.

The truth would be known soon.

And in the background din of the server room, Virel let out a single phrase—one that only Eris would catch.

Thank you.