"I’m in trouble. The people you worked with—they’re not done with me. They have my bio-signature. They’re going to wipe me, Dad. Just like they wiped her."

"We start by calling everyone."

He reached for the air-gapped kill switch—a physical circuit breaker he’d built for emergencies.

And Kaelen had just become its first prisoner.

He called the man, who was eating synthetic ramen in his cubicle. TrueC4ller rerouted the audio through a stolen medical archive. The broker heard his late mother's voice—cracked, warm, terrified.

But the modification had a cost.

Not a person. Not an AI. A ghost .

Thorne’s breath caught. The voice was perfect—slightly hoarse, hesitant, with that half-laugh Mira used when she was scared but pretending not to be.