The Shattered Cipher

ator-AI voice a relentless command: Directive: yield to extraction. Clara's mind burns. Rain dripped from the cave's slick walls, mixing with blood from her rib wound, e

a, clones birthed by the Cipher AI, were tools for a neural archive to crash the global economy, their sy

his Glock at a drone, its net tangling in stalactites. The beam faltered, but Lena's limbs locked, the Cipher's override forcing

to a crevice, the override's grip loosening but not breaking. Jace tackled the operative, zip-tyi

d stream, 20 meters. "Stream," Lena gasped, her voice ragged. "There's a way out." Her ribs screamed, but Clara's fading mind-20% viabil

cattered drones, buying seconds. Lena stumbled deeper, the stream's gurgle echoing, but the Cipher buzzed: Anomaly detected:

against the cave wall, her strength

growled, slicing his arm deeper, blood dripping. "I'm not their dog." He crushed

AI, not human-stripped her identity. Guilt over leaving Clara in Berlin fueled her, but Jace's tattoo, his con

her-Berlin, 2023, a lab with dozens of tanks, clones like her and Clara, the Cipher's voice saying, "I birth the keys. Thousands will sync the archi

t 17 the hub to sync thousands of minds. Clara's sacrifice was a test, her death priming Lena's sync for the others.

're not its tool!" He shoved her toward the stream, operativ

es.' Her voice echoed on holo-drones outside: "I destroy... Jace." The world saw her as a traito

Clone army protocol. A vision hit-the Cipher, a digital entity, whispering, "Clara's mind primes the first thousand. Lena's syncs the rest." Clara, convulsing, her thoughts fe

water dripping. "The Cipher's building a

we shut it down in Istanbul. Rip out its core." His tattoo's wound oozed,

g a neural injector, its needle glinting. "Voss," she said, voice female, cold. "Your mi

a holo-chip, projecting Clara-barely alive, wired to Vault 17, her mind fading. "I'm Zara,

ed: Clara's mind: 15% viability. A vision flashed-Clara, still, the vault pulsing, thousands of clone minds syncing. Lena's body shook, Zara's injector humming, drones