Chapter 87 System Failure
ZARA’S POV
"This isn't peanut butter."
Kai sat cross-legged on my bed, shirtless, wearing his combat pants and holding a spoon like a weapon. He frowned at the jar in his hand.
"It’s organic," I said, wringing out his wet tactical shirt over the bathroom sink.
"And low sugar."
"It’s sadness paste, Zara. It tastes like pulverized cardboard and regret."
He took another massive spoonful anyway.
"I love it."
"You're really not okay, Kai." I responded in between laughs.
I smiled, watching him in the reflection of the mirror. For a terrifying, beautiful moment, we weren't a hybrid weapon and a devourer. We were just college students hiding out in a dorm, eating junk food at 2:00 AM.
But the illusion was thin.
Every time Kai moved, the muscles in his back rippled, and I saw the faint, silver circuitry glowing beneath his skin near his spine. The "upgrade" Voss had mentioned. The factory reset he was fighting so hard to suppress.
He’s winning, my wolf murmured, curled contentedly in my chest. The man is stronger than the machine.
"You know," Kai said, his voice dropping an octave as I walked back into the main room.
"If we barricade the door, we could probably buy ourselves... forty minutes? Maybe an hour before they burn through the lock?"
I sat on the edge of the bed, picking up the ring he’d given me. The dark metal felt warm, humming against my thumb.
"And then what?"
"Then we jump out the window," he said with a shrug, licking peanut butter off the spoon.
"I’m very good at falling. It’s the landing I’m working on."
"Your tactical prowess is inspiring."
"I try."
He reached out, his hand sticky and warm, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. The playfulness vanished from his eyes, replaced by that intense, gravity-shifting focus.
"I’m serious, Zara. I can’t stay here long. My suit..." He gestured to the pile of wet gear on the floor.
"It has biometric trackers. If I don't check in with Central Command in..." he glanced at the digital clock on the wall.
"....twelve minutes, they initiate a retrieval protocol."
"Retrieval?"
"They send the Hunters," he said darkly.
"And they don't knock."
The lock on the dorm door beeped.
We both froze.
Kai was off the bed in a blur of motion, positioning himself in front of me, a low growl vibrating in his chest. His fingers elongated, tips sharpening into obsidian claws.
The handle turned. The door swung open.
Mira walked in, carrying a stack of textbooks and an iced coffee that was definitely mostly ice.
She stopped dead.
She looked at Kai, half-naked and growling.
She looked at me, sitting on the bed looking thoroughly flushed.
She looked at the jar of peanut butter.
"Okay," Mira said, kicking the door shut behind her.
"I have several questions. First, why is the Captain of the Elite Guard shirtless in our room? Second, why does he look like he wants to murder me? And third... did you eat all my peanut butter?"
"Mira," I breathed, stepping out from behind Kai.
"It’s not what it looks like."
"It looks like you're harbouring a fugitive," she deadpanned, walking past Kai as if he were a piece of furniture and dumping her books on her desk.
"Which is cool. I hate the administration. But you know there are like, six drones hovering outside the window, right?"
Kai relaxed his stance, though his eyes remained wary.
"They can't see heat signatures through the storm glass. We're safe. For now."
Mira turned, adjusting her glasses. Her gaze raked over Kai, but unlike most girls at Shadowmere who looked at him with hunger, Mira looked at him like he was a broken code she wanted to debug.
"You're bleeding," she noted, pointing to his side.
"And your tech is glitching."
"I'm confused with everything that's happening here, but I'm not going to over say anything till you both decide to speak."
Kai looked down. The control panel embedded in his combat pants, the interface for his suit, was flickering with a jagged red light.
"It’s the tracker," Kai cursed.
"I tried to jam it, but the encryption is shifting too fast. It’s alien tech. It adapts."
"Let me see," Mira said, stepping closer.
"Mira, no," I warned.
"It’s dangerous."
"It’s just code, Zara." She knelt in front of Kai, oblivious to the fact that he was a literal killing machine.
"Hold still, big guy."
Kai looked at me, bewildered. I nodded.
Mira reached out and touched the glowing panel on Kai's hip.
The moment her skin made contact with the interface, the air in the room shrieked.
It was a high-pitched digital wail.
Kai gasped, his back arching as silver light flared blindingly bright from his skin.
"What did you do?" I shouted, rushing forward.
"I... I didn't..." Mira’s eyes went wide behind her glasses.
But she didn't pull away. Her hand seemed glued to the panel. And then, something impossible happened.
The red light didn't just turn green. It turned blue.
Lines of code, symbols I had never seen before, sharp angles and swirling arcs began to project into the air from the device, scrolling rapidly. They weren't moving randomly. They were flowing into Mira.
Her eyes changed. The dark brown irises were suddenly illuminated by scrolling data streams, reflecting the projection.
"Whoa," Mira whispered, her voice sounding hollow, distant.
"The syntax... it's beautiful."
"Mira!" I grabbed her shoulder.
"Let go!"
"Wait," Kai gritted out, his teeth clenched.
"She’s... she’s rewriting the signal."
"What?"
"The retrieval protocol," Kai panted, sweat beading on his forehead.
"She’s not just jamming it. She’s looping it. She’s telling the system that I’m currently in my quarters, asleep. She’s faking my bio-signature."
Mira blinked, and the connection severed. She fell back onto the floor, gasping for air. The holographic code vanished.
The room fell silent.
Kai stared at her. I stared at her.
Mira adjusted her glasses, her hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Okay," she wheezed.
"That was... intense. Did anyone else see the math? The math tasted like copper."
"How did you do that?" Kai demanded, his voice sharp.
"That encryption is Level 10 Sentinel grade. It took our engineers a century to reverse-engineer it. You just bypassed it in ten seconds."
Mira looked up, her expression terrified but exhilarated.
"I didn't bypass it," she whispered.
"I... I spoke to it."
She looked at her hands.
"It felt like it recognized me."
A chill that had nothing to do with the storm swept through the room.
"Recognized you?" I asked.
"Mira, you're.... I don't know....from Ohio."
"Maybe not," Kai said quietly.
He walked over to the window, peering through the blinds. His posture was rigid.
"Dr. Voss said she was accelerating the evaluation," he murmured.
"She’s not just testing us, Zara. She’s testing everyone. She’s waking up sleepers."
He turned back to us, his face grim.
"Mira isn't just a hacker. That tech... it responded to her DNA. It welcomed her."
Mira stood up slowly, looking sick.
"So, what? I'm an advanced techie wolf now, too?"
"No," Kai said.
"The techies are the battery. You..."
He pointed to the now-silent panel on his hip.
"You're the pilot."
Before I could ask what the hell that meant, the intercom system in the hallway crackled to life.
"Attention all students. This is a mandatory shelter-in-place order. Security breach detected in Sector 4. Repeat. Security breach in Sector 4."
Sector 4 was the dorms.
"They know," I said, panic flaring.
"They don't know exactly where I am," Kai said, grabbing his wet shirt and pulling it on.
"Thanks to Mira, they think I'm a ghost in the machine. But they're going to go door-to-door."
He grabbed my shoulders.
"We have to move. Now."
"Where?" I asked.
"The exits will be sealed."
Kai looked at Mira.
"Can you do that again?" he asked.
"Can you talk to the building?"
Mira swallowed hard. She looked terrified, but she nodded.
"I think so. The walls... I can hear them humming now. It’s annoying."
"Good," Kai said.
"Because we need to get to the basement."
"Why the basement?" I asked.
Kai strapped his tactical vest back on, the sound of velcro loud in the quiet room. He looked at me, and the boyishness was gone. The soldier was back.
"Because that's where they keep the unstable weapons," he said.
"And if we're going to survive this night, we're going to need something bigger than claws."
He checked the clip of a handgun I hadn't realized he was carrying.
"We need Professor Ajax."