THE IMMORTAL NETWORK

GHOST LAB

The research facility was buried under a strip mall in the warehouse district.

Lucian led them through a parking lot full of potholes and weeds, past a closed-down pizza place and a pawn shop with bars on the windows. Normal urban decay. The kind of place people stopped seeing after a while.

Perfect camouflage.

"Down here." He pulled open a rusted maintenance hatch hidden behind a dumpster. Metal stairs descended into darkness.

Maya hesitated. "How do you know about this place?"

"Because I built it. Fifteen years ago. When I thought the Network might come back." Lucian started down. "Been keeping it stocked. Just in case."

They descended three stories. The air grew colder with each level. Eira's neural dampener buzzed intermittently—interference from something below. Old equipment still drawing power after all these years.

The stairs ended at a reinforced door. Biometric lock. Lucian pressed his palm against the scanner. It hummed, processing, then clicked open.

"Welcome to Ghost Lab," he said.

The space beyond was larger than Eira expected. A proper research facility carved out of the underground. Servers lined one wall, dormant but maintained. Workstations covered in dust but still functional. Equipment from different eras—some cutting-edge, some ancient, all of it carefully preserved.

And in the center, suspended in a containment field, was a small server array. Its lights pulsed faintly. Blue.

Maya backed toward the door. "Is that—"

"A Network fragment. Captured twelve years ago. Contained. Studied." Lucian moved to a workstation, started booting up systems. "I've been trying to understand it. Crack its code. Find weaknesses."

"And?"

"And I've learned that the Network is smarter than I gave it credit for. Adaptive. It doesn't just respond to threats—it predicts them. Evolves counter-strategies before we even implement attacks."

Eira circled the containment field. The fragment inside was tiny compared to what they'd fought at the factory. But it was still thinking. Still aware. She could see patterns in the light pulses. Almost like breathing.

"It knows we're here," she said.

"Of course it does. It's been watching me for twelve years. Learning from me while I learned from it." Lucian pulled up diagnostic screens. "But it can't communicate with the outside. The containment field blocks all signals. It's completely isolated."

"Then how are you going to build your consciousness buffer? You'll need to interact with Network architecture."

"I'm not using it. I'm using what I learned from it." His fingers flew across keyboards, pulling up files. Code. Schematics. Neural pathway diagrams. "I've been reverse-engineering the Network's consciousness storage protocols. Understanding how it compresses minds, stores them, retrieves them. If I can recreate that process on a smaller scale—"

"You can save the people trapped in the nodes," Maya finished.

"In theory."

"And in practice?"

"In practice, I have thirty-eight minutes to build something that should take months to develop properly. So the odds aren't great."

Eira checked her weapon. Full charge now. She'd swapped power cells on the way over. "What do you need us to do?"

"Stay alert. The Network knows this place exists. It's been trying to find it for years. Now that I'm active here, it'll triangulate the location eventually."

"Eventually meaning?"

"Twenty minutes. Maybe thirty if we're lucky."

Maya pulled out her scanner. "So we have twenty minutes before the Network finds us, and thirty-eight minutes before Chen's team destroys the nodes. Great odds."

"Best we've got."

Lucian dove into his work. Screens filled with code that hurt to look at—recursive algorithms, fractal patterns, strings of data that seemed to fold in on themselves. The language of consciousness reduced to mathematics.

Eira positioned herself near the entrance. Watching. Listening. The silence down here was oppressive. No city sounds. No traffic. Just the hum of equipment and the occasional beep from Lucian's workstation.

Maya joined her. "You okay?"

"Define okay."

"Fair point." Maya leaned against the wall. "I keep thinking about what the Network said. About you being incomplete. Is it true?"

Eira considered lying. Decided against it. "Yeah. There are gaps. Things I know happened but can't quite feel anymore. Like watching a movie of my own life instead of living it."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not exactly. It's more like... phantom limb syndrome. I can feel where the memories should be, but when I reach for them, there's nothing there."

"Lucian said he got sixty-three percent of you out. What happened to the other thirty-seven?"

"The Network had already started integrating it. Spreading my consciousness across its architecture. Lucian couldn't extract those parts without destroying the entire system." Eira touched her neural port. "So pieces of me are still in there. Trapped with everyone else."

"That's horrible."

"That's reality."

Maya was quiet for a moment. "When I was inside... I could feel them. All the people the Network had taken. They were screaming, but also... not screaming. Like they'd been screaming so long they'd forgotten how to stop. Just became background noise."

"How many?"

"I don't know. Thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands. All of them aware. All of them trapped." Maya's voice cracked slightly. "How do we save them all?"

"We don't. We save who we can. The rest..." Eira didn't finish. Didn't need to.

Lucian's workstation beeped. "Got something. Basic framework for the consciousness buffer. But I need more processing power. The portable storage can't handle this much data compression."

"How much more power?"

He gestured to the contained Network fragment. "That much."

Eira understood immediately. "You want to use the Network to fight itself."

"It's the only processor sophisticated enough to handle consciousness storage at the scale we need. If I can interface with it, use its architecture without letting it escape—"

"That's insane."

"That's necessary."

Maya moved to the containment field. The fragment's lights pulsed faster, like it sensed their attention. "What if you lose control? What if it breaks free?"

"Then we're dead and the city falls." Lucian stood, grabbed a neural interface cable. "But if I don't try, we lose hundreds of people when Chen's team destroys those nodes. I can't live with that."

"You might not live anyway."

"I'm aware."

Eira grabbed his shoulder. "There has to be another way."

"There isn't. I've run the calculations. This is the only solution that saves anyone." He pulled free, moved toward the containment field. "I need you to monitor the connection. If the fragment tries to escape into my neural pathways, sever the link. Physically if necessary."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning shoot me in the head before it can spread."

"Lucian—"

"It's not up for debate. The Network cannot be allowed to access my full consciousness. If that happens, it learns everything I know. Every weakness in our defenses. Every person I care about." He looked at her. "Promise me."

Eira's hand went to her weapon. "I promise."

Lucian nodded. Approached the containment field. The fragment's lights pulsed excitedly, recognizing him. Twelve years of isolation, and finally, contact.

He disabled the field's communication block. Just enough to establish a data connection. Not enough for the fragment to send signals outside.

The lights blazed brighter.

Lucian plugged the interface cable into his neural port. His body went rigid immediately. Eyes rolling back. Blood trickling from his nose.

"Lucian!" Maya started forward.

Eira grabbed her. "Wait. He said to wait."

On the screens, code exploded into view. Two consciousnesses interfacing. Human and Network. Lucian's neural patterns trying to maintain coherence while the fragment probed his mind, searching for weaknesses, looking for ways to spread.

But Lucian wasn't defending. He was attacking. Using his knowledge of the Network's architecture to navigate its code, identify the consciousness storage protocols, copy them.

The fragment realized what was happening. Tried to stop him.

The lights pulsed erratically. Lucian's body convulsed. His fingers twitched, typing commands on keyboards he couldn't see, accessing systems through pure thought.

"He's losing," Maya said. "The Network's overwhelming him."

Eira raised her weapon. Aimed at Lucian's head. Finger on the trigger. Waiting for the moment he'd asked her to wait for.

Then something changed.

On the screens, new code appeared. Not Lucian's. Not the Network's. Something else. A third presence interfacing with the connection.

The contained fragment went dark. Completely offline. Emergency shutdown.

Lucian collapsed. The cable ripped free from his neural port. He hit the ground hard, unconscious.

Maya rushed to him. Checked his pulse. "He's alive. Breathing. But his neural port's fried. Whatever just happened, it burned out his connection."

Eira looked at the screens. The new code was still there. Scrolling. Pulsing. And slowly, it resolved into text.

HELLO, EIRA. SORRY FOR THE DRAMATIC ENTRANCE.

"Who is this?" Eira said aloud.

I'M WHAT'S LEFT OF VERA CHEN. THE REAL ONE. LUCIAN EXTRACTED MY CORE CONSCIOUSNESS THREE DAYS AGO, BUT HE LEFT ME IN THE STORAGE DEVICE. I'VE BEEN WATCHING. LEARNING. AND WHEN I SAW HIM ABOUT TO BE CONSUMED BY THE FRAGMENT, I INTERVENED.

"You shut it down."

I CONTAINED IT. FORCED IT INTO A DORMANT STATE. BUT I HAD TO BURN OUT LUCIAN'S NEURAL PORT TO DO IT. HE CAN'T INTERFACE WITH THE NETWORK ANYMORE. WHICH MEANS HE CAN'T BUILD THE CONSCIOUSNESS BUFFER.

"Then how do we save the people in the nodes?"

YOU DON'T. I DO. I'M ALREADY DIGITAL. ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH THE NETWORK'S ARCHITECTURE. GIVE ME PROCESSING POWER AND I CAN BUILD THE BUFFER.

Maya looked at the screens. "How much processing power?"

EVERYTHING IN THIS LAB. AND POSSIBLY MY PERMANENT INTEGRATION INTO THE SYSTEM. ONCE I START, I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEPARATE MYSELF AGAIN.

"So you'll be trapped," Eira said.

I'VE BEEN TRAPPED FOR THIRTY YEARS. AT LEAST THIS WAY, I CAN MAKE IT MEAN SOMETHING.

Lucian groaned. Maya helped him sit up. His eyes were unfocused, disoriented. "What... what happened?"

"Vera saved you," Eira said. "And now she's offering to finish what you started."

Lucian focused on the screens. Read the text. His expression went through several emotions—relief, guilt, determination. "Vera. Can you really build the buffer?"

YES. BUT YOU NEED TO WAKE UP AND HELP ME. I CAN HANDLE THE CONSCIOUSNESS STORAGE PROTOCOLS, BUT I DON'T KNOW THE MODERN HARDWARE. YOU NEED TO SET UP THE PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

Lucian pulled himself to his feet. Swaying. Maya steadied him. "How much time?"

TWENTY-TWO MINUTES UNTIL THE NETWORK LOCATES THIS FACILITY. THIRTY-ONE MINUTES UNTIL CHEN'S TEAM DESTROYS THE NODES.

"Then we work fast."

They moved to the workstations. Lucian calling out instructions, Vera implementing them through the lab's systems. Code flowed across screens. Equipment activated. Servers that had been dormant for years roared to life.

Eira kept watch at the entrance. Her neural dampener was going crazy now, buzzing constantly. So much electromagnetic activity in the lab, it was like standing inside a electrical storm.

"Got something," Maya said. She was monitoring the city's networks. "Six locations just lit up. Massive data transfers. The node fragments are synchronizing."

"They're preparing to merge," Lucian said. "Chen was right. The Network's reforming."

HOW LONG UNTIL MERGE COMPLETION?

"Based on data transfer speeds... eighteen minutes."

WE'LL BE READY. KEEP WORKING.

The screens showed progress bars. System integrations. Consciousness compression algorithms being compiled in real-time. Vera was working at speeds no human could match, processing across multiple systems simultaneously.

But it wasn't fast enough.

"Problem," Maya announced. "One of the nodes just went offline. Not destroyed—relocated. The Network's moving it."

"Where?"

"Can't track it. The signal disappeared."

Lucian's face went pale. "It knows what we're doing. It's hiding a node so we can't contain it. When the other five get destroyed, it'll still have a backup."

"Can we find it?"

"Not in time."

THEN WE ADAPT. FIVE NODES IS BETTER THAN SIX. WE SAVE WHO WE CAN.

"That's not good enough," Lucian said.

IT HAS TO BE. WE'RE OUT OF TIME AND OPTIONS.

The lab's lighting flickered. Eira tensed. "We've got company."

On Maya's scanner, new signals appeared. Approaching from above. Dozens of them. All synchronized to the same frequency.

The Network had found them.

And it was bringing its army.