The radio signal wasn't transmitting binary data or strings of encrypted code.
It traveled through an old amateur frequency—a loose analog wave that cleaved the silence of Nix's laboratory with a sharp hiss of static.
*BZZZZZZT...*
Kaelen immediately went on alert, his first hand darting to the grip of the pistol at his waist. Nix swiftly locked down the signal's isolation so the transmission couldn't trace their lab's coordinates back to them, while Ivo took a step backward toward the exit.
Then, from the speaker on Nix's monitor, a voice drifted softly.
*“...Anyone in Sector Six... please... my son hasn't come back from Soma Clinic Three... his name is Arlo... he's only eight years old... please...”*
It was the voice of an old woman. Hoarse, trembling, and fractured by desperate sobs. It was the kind of public emergency broadcast recording that often played on repeat across underground radio channels—the voice of a mother searching for her child, absorbed into the Soma Corp system.
Yet the reaction inside the room had nothing to do with the radio broadcast.
Aira froze.
The blue light at her neck and temples instantly went out, replaced by an intensely bright blood-red glow. Her pupils dilated, then turned completely white. The mechanical joints in her neck and shoulders made a rapid, irregular *click-click-click*.
“Aira?” Kaelen stepped closer.
“DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!” Nix shouted, his screen suddenly flooded with blazing red warnings. “Her internal system is responding to that audio frequency! There's a *fail-safe* injected into her primary neural layer!”
Aira didn't scream. She didn't turn around.
With terrifying speed, Aira spun and lunged at Nix. Lethal organic blades sprouted between her fingers, aimed straight at the hacker's throat. Nix's eyes widened as he tried to retreat, sending his chair toppling backward.
“Aira, STOP!” Kaelen shouted.
Kaelen didn't think twice. He leaped into the middle and slammed into Aira from the side. The two of them rolled across the concrete floor, strewn with loose cables.
Aira's physical strength was extraordinary. Though her body looked slender, the density of her synthetic muscles made Kaelen feel as if he were holding back a speeding hunk of steel. Aira hurled Kaelen against the wall, her grip crushing his right shoulder until his clothes and skin tore apart.
The blade in Aira's left hand rose, ready to strike Kaelen in the chest.
Aira's whitened eyes stared at Kaelen without a shred of human awareness in them. This was the Primary Defense Protocol—a hidden Soma Corp instruction to destroy anyone near the vessel whenever a specific trigger frequency was detected.
“Aira... it's me...” Kaelen's breath caught, his chest constricted by the pressure of Aira's hand. “You... you're not their machine...”
The blade swept downward.
Kaelen didn't dodge. He knew he wouldn't make it in time. Instead, with the strength remaining in his first hand, Kaelen seized Aira by the neck, pulled the girl's head closer, and whispered right beside her ear.
He tapped three short beats with his finger against the back of Aira's neck.
*Tap. Tap. Tap.*
The tabletop tapping pattern he'd always taught Mira.
The organic blade stopped a millimeter from Kaelen's chest.
One second. Two seconds.
The deadly red light in Aira's eyes flickered wildly. The lines in her neck trembled violently, spitting tiny sparks as two opposing instructions collided inside her organic brain: Soma's manufactured kill protocol versus a human emotional trigger implanted from Mira's memories.
“Aira...” Kaelen whispered again, his voice hoarse. “Choose who you are.”
A scream of utterly human anguish finally tore from Aira's throat.
The blades in her fingers forcibly retracted into her synthetic flesh. The red light in her eyes went out completely, and Aira's body abruptly lost its strength, collapsing onto Kaelen's chest.
The laboratory fell silent again, broken only by Kaelen's ragged breathing and the radio static slowly fading away.
Ivo approached shakily, gripping his drill weapon tightly. Nix crawled out from behind his wrecked desk, rubbing his neck, which had nearly been severed.
“Jesus...” Nix muttered, choking on his breath. “That... that was an *override* protocol. Soma implanted a control trigger in her organic nervous system. Whenever the sound of suffering from the lower classes or a certain radio frequency is heard, the protocol activates to make sure this vessel destroys any witnesses nearby.”
Kaelen slowly sat Aira, still limp, up on the floor.
Aira rested her head on Kaelen's shoulder. The skin of her face was deathly pale, and clear tears—synthetic optical lubricant—slowly trickled from her eyes, which had returned to normal.
“Kaelen...” Aira's voice trembled violently, small and utterly fragile.
“I’m here,” Kaelen said, holding Aira's cold fingers.
“I know... what happened just now,” Aira whispered, staring at her own hands with numbness and disgust. “I couldn't stop my hands. There's a part of me... deliberately made to kill you.”
Aira looked up and met Kaelen's eyes with painful honesty.
“Some of the memories I feel... some of these emotional reactions... Soma implanted them,” Aira confessed softly. “They didn't just steal Mira's memories. They manipulated them and turned them into a leash for me. I’m... I’m just a walking trap, Kaelen.”
Kaelen looked at the girl in front of him. He could see how shattered Aira was as she realized that her own thoughts and reactions had been poisoned by her creators.
Kaelen shook his head firmly.
“They did implant that trap in your body, Aira,” Kaelen said, his voice steady and utterly certain. “But the way you stopped that blade just now... the way you held yourself back from killing me... that wasn't made by Soma. That was your own choice.”
Aira stared at Kaelen, her eyes slowly widening.
Nix, having just finished checking his terminal logs, suddenly slammed his fist hard against the worktable.
“Great emotional decision, Vance!” Nix cut in, panic no longer concealable in his voice. “But that protocol trigger just now... it wasn't some random radio broadcast. It was a *ping* signal from Soma!”
Kaelen looked up sharply. “What do you mean?”
Nix pointed at his main monitor, now filled with dozens of red dots moving rapidly to encircle the Industrial Belt.
“Soma deliberately transmitted that frequency to trigger Aira's *fail-safe* response!” Nix shouted. “That protocol acted as a trigger beacon! They've found this laboratory's location!”