[SYSTEM]

  TIME TO SECTOR 7 TEST: 10 HOURS, 02 MINUTES

  TIME TO KAEL'S PERFORMANCE REVIEW: 05:18:00

  FUGUE: 58% (STABLE, NO RECOVERY POSSIBLE)

  STATUS: UNPERSON (ACTIVE - FOUNDRY DISTRICT)

  TEAM: 7 MEMBERS (ROURKE MOBILITY: -40%)

  OBJECTIVE: ACQUIRE INTERNAL AUDIT EVIDENCE

  RESTRICTION: NO POWER USAGE (FUGUE CRITICAL)

  [/SYSTEM]

  The Patriot Guard administrative block stood silent. Its security status glowed red on every external display.

  QUARANTINE: DATA PURGE IN PROGRESS

  "Kael's purging the evidence," I said. The entire sublevel was under automated lockdown. "He knows we're coming."

  Lara studied her scanner. "Heat signatures show minimal staff. Most evacuated. The purge protocol triggers automatic cooling shutdown to prevent data recovery. Temperatures rising to hardware-failure levels in thirty minutes."

  "Then we have twenty," Marcus said. "Ten to get in, ten to get out before we cook."

  We approached the service entrance. A guard stood at the door, his HUD visor glowing. He saw us. His hand went to his weapon.

  His visor flashed red. Then yellow. Then displayed: BIOMETRIC ERROR - CONTACT SUPERVISOR.

  "Hey!" he shouted. "Stop right there!"

  We kept walking.

  He raised his rifle. "I said stop!" His voice cracked. He was young. New.

  His partner, an older guard, grabbed his arm. "Stand down. Their IDs aren't pinging."

  "But they're right there!"

  "System glitch. Happening all shift. Command says ignore anomalies, focus on purge protocol."

  The young guard lowered his weapon, bewildered. We walked between them.

  The older guard didn't look at us. He spoke into his comm. "Another glitch at Service Entrance Delta. No biometrics. Requesting tech support."

  Unperson didn't make us invisible. It made us an administrative error. A problem for the help desk, not the security team.

  The interior was hotter. Climate control was offline. Emergency lighting cast everything in red.

  "Server room is sublevel three," Eli said. "Purge started seven minutes ago. Data is being overwritten with random checksums. Once a sector is purged, it's gone."

  "Can we stop it?"

  "No. But we can intercept the raw data before it's shredded. The purge system creates temporary cache files. We steal those."

  We reached the stairwell to sublevel three. The door was sealed. A retinal scanner glowed beside it.

  Lara stepped forward. She held up a stolen security badge. The scanner beeped red.

  ACCESS DENIED. PURGE LOCKDOWN ACTIVE.

  "Override code," I said.

  Eli tapped at a portable terminal. "Working. The purge system has a backdoor for emergency termination. Requires Tier 4 clearance."

  "We don't have that."

  "We have the Auditor's override from Node Theta-Seven. It's still active in the system. Buried in the logs."

  He typed. The scanner beeped green.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The door unlocked with a hiss. Heat washed over us. The server room below glowed with warning lights.

  We descended.

  The server room was an oven. Servers lined the walls, their cooling fans silent. Heat shimmers distorted the air.

  Eli went to a terminal. "Purge is at forty percent complete. The cache files are here." He pointed to a directory labeled TEMP_AUDIT_CACHE. "They're encrypted, but the purge system is decrypting them to overwrite. We have to grab them mid-process."

  "Can you do that?"

  "I can try." His fingers flew. "I'm spoofing a system request to pause the decryption on three key files. It'll buy us ninety seconds."

  The terminal screen split. Lines of code scrolled. One window showed a progress bar: PURGE 42%... 43%...

  "Got it," Eli said. "Three files paused. Now copying."

  A new alert flashed on every screen in the room.

  [SYSTEM ALERT]

  PURGE INTERRUPTION DETECTED.

  ANOMALOUS DATA REQUEST LOGGED.

  RESPONSE: INITIATE HARDWARE FAILURE PROTOCOL.

  COOLING SYSTEMS: PERMANENTLY DISABLED.

  FIRE SUPPRESSION: OFFLINE (NO REGISTERED LIFE SIGNS).

  ESTIMATED TIME TO CRITICAL TEMPERATURE: 12 MINUTES.

  [/SYSTEM]

  The heat intensified. My sweat evaporated before it could form. The air burned to breathe.

  "Copying," Eli whispered. "Twenty percent. Thirty."

  Lara watched the door. "Guards are moving in the hall. They're confused. Arguing about whether to enter during a purge."

  "Keep them confused," I said.

  She tapped her comm. "I'm feeding false thermal signatures to their scanners. Making it look like server hotspots."

  "Forty percent copied," Eli said. "The system is fighting me. It's trying to resume the purge."

  "Don't let it."

  "I'm not." His knuckles were white. "But it's getting smarter. It's isolating my access."

  Marcus checked his chrono. "Eight minutes to critical. We need to move."

  "Sixty percent," Eli said.

  A new voice crackled over the building's PA system. Kael's voice, strained.

  "All personnel, evacuate sublevel three immediately. Purge protocol is entering final phase. Any remaining personnel will be considered compromised assets."

  He was trying to clear the area. To remove witnesses.

  "Seventy percent," Eli said. "Almost there."

  The door to the server room shuddered. Someone was trying to override the lock.

  "Guards are getting orders to breach," Lara said. "They're being told there might be squatters using the heat to hide."

  "Eli."

  "Eighty percent. Ninety."

  The door lock disengaged. It slid open an inch. A guard's face appeared in the gap.

  "Hey! What are you—"

  Marcus slammed the door shut. He braced against it. "Copy faster!"

  "Done!" Eli yanked the data shard from the terminal. "Got it."

  We ran for the rear exit. The door was sealed. Another retinal scanner.

  "No time," I said. "Marcus."

  He didn't hesitate. He fired his shock rod at the scanner. It exploded in sparks. The door hissed open.

  Alarms blared. Different alarms. Not security alerts. System failure warnings.

  [SYSTEM ALERT]

  CRITICAL TEMPERATURE THRESHOLD REACHED.

  SERVER INTEGRITY COMPROMISED.

  INITIATING EMERGENCY CONTAINMENT.

  [/SYSTEM]

  Metal shutters began descending over every exit. We dove under the last one as it slammed down behind us.

  The hallway was slightly cooler. We ran.

  Behind us, through the closing shutter, I saw the server room. Servers glowed red hot. Then white. Then melted into slag.

  Kael hadn't just tried to delete data. He'd destroyed the entire storage array.

  We reached the surface exit. The night air felt like ice after the oven below.

  We didn't stop running until we were three blocks away.

  In a maintenance alcove, Eli inserted the data shard into his portable reader.

  "It's incomplete," he said. "But it's enough. Kael's override chains. The cost of the Node Theta-Seven shutdown. His efficiency score decay. And one more thing."

  "What?"

  "A log entry from two hours ago. Kael requested a full system audit of his own department. To 'identify security breaches.'"

  "He's trying to frame us for the data theft," Lara said.

  "Worse. He's trying to trigger an Auditor investigation into the anomalies. To redirect attention from his failures to our existence."

  I took the data shard. "Then we deliver this before he can."

  We found a public data kiosk. It was meant for citizens to file complaints. It had a direct feed to the System's audit department.

  I inserted the shard. Selected URGENT AUDIT SUBMISSION.

  The kiosk processed for a moment. Then displayed:

  [SYSTEM]

  AUDIT PACKET RECEIVED.

  CONTENTS: PRIORITY EVIDENCE - ADMINISTRATIVE MISCONDUCT.

  ROUTING: IMMEDIATE REVIEW.

  ESTIMATED RESPONSE TIME: 01:30:00.

  NOTE: SUBMISSION SOURCE UNREGISTERED. LOGGED AS ANONYMOUS.

  [/SYSTEM]

  We retreated to our hideout. Rourke was awake, bandaging his leg.

  "Did it work?" he asked.

  "We'll know in ninety minutes," I said.

  Eli pulled up the public feeds. The administrative block was now surrounded by emergency vehicles. Not fire trucks. Auditor transports.

  "They're not there to put out the fire," I said. "They're there to audit the failure."

  [SYSTEM]

  UPDATE:

  ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK 7: DATA PURGE COMPLETE.

  HARDWARE LOSS: 100%.

  AUDIT TRAIL: PARTIALLY RECOVERED VIA THIRD-PARTY SUBMISSION.

  KAEL VANCE EFFICIENCY SCORE: -24%.

  ASSET RESOLUTION WINDOW: MOVED TO IMMINENT (00:45:00 - 02:00:00).

  [/SYSTEM]

  Kael had tried to burn the evidence. He'd only succeeded in burning his own credibility.

  And we had walked through the fire to deliver the ashes.