A Bug in the Code

The stench of the sewers clung to Miyu's skin like a second shadow. Even after three scalding showers in a dingy capsule hotel, she could still smell it—the rot, the rust, the stale water thick with things she didn't want to name. She scrubbed her arms raw under the flickering neon light of the bathroom, her reflection gaunt in the smudged mirror.

You look like hell.

She tossed the cheap towel onto the floor and pulled on fresh clothes—black cargo pants, a nondescript gray hoodie, boots that had seen better days. Everything bought from different stalls in the black market, cash only, no biometric scans. No trails.

Kai was already waiting outside, leaning against the alley wall, his face half-hidden under a baseball cap. He looked better, though the shadows under his eyes were still too deep.

"You clean up almost okay," he muttered, pushing off the wall.

Miyu ignored him, adjusting the hood over her face. "We need to move."

The streets were quieter than usual, the usual bustle of the Choke muted under the weight of increased Sentinel patrols. Drones hummed overhead, their red sensors scanning the crowds. Miyu kept her head down, her fingers brushing the neural drive in her pocket. It was still warm.

Then she saw the kid.

A scrawny boy, no older than ten, hunched over a cracked tablet in a dimly lit alcove. The screen flickered with lines of code—a machine learning tutorial, the instructor's voice tinny through the cheap speakers.

"—and that's how backpropagation works. The network adjusts its weights based on error, learning from its mistakes—"

Miyu froze.

Backpropagation.

The word hit her like a spark to dry tinder.

Echo had glitched. The X-9s had turned on each other. The Sentinel wasn't just watching—it was learning. Adapting.

And if it could learn from its mistakes...

So could they.

Miyu turned to Kai, her voice low. "We need to find a secure terminal. Now."

Kai frowned. "Why?"

She didn't answer. She was already moving, the kid's tutorial still playing in her head.

Error. Adjustment. Learning.

They didn't just have a fragment of Echo.

They had a way to train her.