as moving. Arden dropped into a crouch, gun raised. "Tell me that's not what I think it is," she muttered. Kieran forced himself upright, gripping the data shard in his palm-the Ghost Key, encr

ck. "Arden!" he yelled. "And oh my gods-you brought the dead man himself!" Kieran blinked. "Punchline?" "In the flabby flesh," the man said, striking a pose. "Also known as the one-man apocalypse for hire." "He's a data whisperer," Arden said. "Don't let the cosplay fool you." "Cosplay?" Punchline gasped. "This is fashion, peasant." Kieran stared. "You trust him?" "No," Arden said. "But he hates Helix more than he loves chaos." Punchline bowed. "It's true. Their bounty on my head is insultingly low." The hacker's den looked like a tech museum exploded. Servers lined the walls like relics, tangled in cables, blinking in different rhythms. Holograms flickered overhead: schematics, memes, and live footage from Helix security feeds. The robotic iguana blinked sleepily from its perch. "Alright, dead guy," Punchline said, dropping into a swiveling chair. "Gimme the goods." Kieran held out the Ghost Key shard. Punchline scanned it with a device shaped like a garden gnome. A moment later, his eyes widened. "Ooooooh, spicy," he breathed. "This is government-grade memory encryption. Quantum folded. Emotional locks. Neural triggers. All stored in a live fragment." "Can you decrypt it?" "Sure. For a price." Arden stepped forward, cocking her pistol. "We're short on credits." "Oh no, honey," he said, smirking. "I don't want money. I want him." Kieran frowned. "Me?" "I want your story. Your version. Everyone says you caused the Collapse. I want to know if it's true." Arden scoffed. "You'll be dead before you finish the interview." But Kieran nodded. "Fine," he said. "You'll get your truth. After you decrypt this and give me access to what's inside." Punchline clapped his hands. "Yay! Let's crack a god." It took two hours. While Punchline ran the algorithms, Kieran sat in a corner, watching old footage of the city before the Collapse-when the skyline glowed, when cars flew, when minds were free. "You alright?" Arden asked quietly. He look