A Bug in the Code

The Government District smelled like disinfectant and ozone.

Miyu adjusted the high-collar maintenance uniform, the synthetic fabric itching against her neck. The forged ID badge hung heavy on her chest—Hiroshi Takeda, Systems Technician, Clearance Level 4. Beside her, Kai kept his head slightly bowed, his own disguise making him just another faceless worker in Sentinel gray.

They moved with purpose, boots clicking against the polished streets. Here, the air was cleaner, filtered through towering atmospheric scrubbers. The buildings loomed like monoliths, their surfaces seamless black glass reflecting the too-blue sky. No neon. No grime. Just cold, calculated order.

A patrol drone buzzed overhead, its red sensor sweeping the street. Miyu didn't flinch. She kept her pace steady, her breathing even. The drone lingered for a heartbeat—then moved on.

"Too easy," Kai muttered under his breath.

Miyu's fingers brushed the hidden compartment in her sleeve where the neural drive rested. "It's not."

Up ahead, the Izanagi Data Fortress rose like a obsidian knife, its edges sharp enough to cut the sky. The entrance was a yawning maw of biometric scanners and armed enforcers.

But they weren't going that way.

"Maintenance access is fifty meters west," Miyu murmured, nodding toward an unmarked service alley.

They turned the corner—

—and nearly walked straight into an X-9.

The cyborg stood motionless at the alley's mouth, its featureless faceplate tilted downward as if in thought. Its left arm ended not in a hand, but in a data probe, still slick with fresh coolant.

Miyu's pulse spiked.

Kai's fingers twitched toward the concealed pistol at his hip.

Then—

The X-9's head snapped up. Its sensor flickered from red to blue.

"Proceed," it intoned, stepping aside.

Miyu didn't question it. She strode past, Kai at her heels, feeling the cyborg's gaze on their backs until they rounded the next corner.

"What the hell was that?" Kai hissed.

Echo's voice whispered from Miyu's earpiece, barely audible: "I may have... borrowed one."

Miyu touched the neural drive through her sleeve. "You hacked an X-9?"

"No," Echo said. "I asked it."

The maintenance hatch loomed ahead, its keypad glowing faintly green.

Beyond it, the heart of the Sentinel waited.

Miyu input the stolen access code.

The door hissed open.

Darkness swallowed them whole.