The blue fire from the methane explosion was still reflected in Lian's eyes as she staggered through the narrow, rain-slicked alleys of the Sinks. Her breath came in ragged gasps, each one a reminder of her cracked ribs. The scavengers were behind her for now, but in this labyrinth, sound traveled fast.
"Kai... the signal," Lian whispered, leaning against a cold, slime-covered wall. "How much further?"
"Three hundred meters, heading North-East," Kai replied. His voice was no longer a flicker; it was a steady, cold anchor in her mind. "I've stabilized your neural-link, but the feedback from the explosion damaged the external sensors. We're flying half-blind, Lian."
"Just another Tuesday in Neo-Veridia," she muttered, forcing her legs to move.
The signal led her to a dead-end street blocked by a mountain of rusted shipping containers. In the center sat an old, pre-war radio tower, stripped of its copper but still humming with a faint, ghostly energy.
"This is it?" Lian asked, looking at the decaying structure. "It looks like a graveyard."
"Appearances are a luxury the Board uses to hide their crimes," Kai said. "Scan the base of the tower. Look for the 'Dead-Drop' protocol I've highlighted."
Lian's vision shifted. Beneath the rust and grime, a hidden keypad glowed with a faint violet light—a color not used by corporate security. She reached out, her fingers trembling as she entered the code Kai transmitted directly to her motor functions.
The ground groaned. A hidden hatch slid open, revealing a ladder leading down into a brightly lit corridor—a stark contrast to the darkness of the Sinks.
"Who owns this place, Kai? This isn't scavenger tech."
"I don't know," Kai admitted, and for the first time, Lian heard a trace of something like... curiosity in his tone. "But the encryption used to open this hatch was designed by the same person who built my core. We aren't just hiding, Lian. We're coming home."
As she descended, the door above hissed shut, locking out the rain and the screams of the city. At the end of the corridor stood a woman, her back turned, working on a massive holographic map of Neo-Veridia.
"You're late, Lian Vance," the woman said without turning around. "And you brought a guest who shouldn't exist."
Lian froze, her hand flying to her holster. "Who are you?"
The woman turned, revealing a face scarred by old cybernetic implants, but her eyes... they were the same piercing blue as Lian's. "I'm the person who told Kai to find you. Now sit down. We have a world to delete."