III – Silence's Tale
The upper command tier of CSDS was quiet, lit only by the pulse of red and blue holographic data feeds cascading down the glass walls.
Zhang Bo stood before the central console, coat unbuttoned, sleeves rolled, the lines of exhaustion carved deep into his face. The hum of the Thorium grid vibrated through the floor—a steady, rhythmic heartbeat for a city on the verge of cardiac arrest.
"AI," Zhang said, his voice low but sharp. "Enhance digital zoom on the east maintenance feed. Focus on subject Talgat. Forty percent."
The display magnified, stabilizing on a flickering frame of Talgat crouched by the relay node.
His gloved hand hovered over the detonator casing, motionless, trembling slightly.
"Playback audio," Zhang ordered.
The speakers filled with faint static—then fragments of voices:
Talgat's muttering… Korren's commands… and beneath them, something new—an interference pattern threaded through a secondary channel.
Zhang's gaze sharpened.
"AI, isolate that background frequency. Filter to human speech."
A moment's delay. Then another voice emerged, smooth and venomous:
"You think you can disobey him, soldier?"
Zhang's jaw tightened. "Daren…"
The AI confirmed:
"Voice pattern match: Merchant Tier council member Daren Al-Keshev. Cross-signal detected between merchant and maintenance network."
Zhang exhaled slowly through his nose. "So that's the missing hand."
He turned to his console, switching feeds. The Merchant Tier appeared—a labyrinth of freight lifts and warehouses, dim under the crimson lights of lockdown. One figure stood out, pacing nervously behind a cargo container: Daren, datapad in hand, whispering into a commlink.
Zhang's expression didn't change, but his fingers moved fast.
"AI, record every byte. Send encrypted fragment to Qiran's terminal. Label: 'Snake in the Market.' No broadcast. No trace."
"Transmission initiated. Secure channel active."
"Good."
He paused, eyes drifting back to Talgat's feed. The young man was still crouched by the detonator, now trying to remove a relay cable from its housing. Sparks danced around his hands.
Zhang leaned closer. "Don't do it, boy. Not yet."
The AI's voice broke through the tense silence.
"Director, Thorium flow increasing by point-eight percent. Unidentified external node activating through merchant frequency bands." Post-event logs would later trace the recursive surge loop back to a tampered relay — Doren's interference in the merchant channel.
"That's the bypass," Zhang said. "He's already triggered it."
"Estimated time to overload?"
Zhang's hand hovered over the console. "Sixty seconds, if we're lucky."
In the feed, Talgat's voice came through, urgent, frantic.
"Korren, abort! The sequence's compromised!"
Korren's reply was distant, distorted.
"You're stalling again."
"It's not me—someone spoofed the—"
Static.
Then the signal died.
Zhang's eyes widened. "AI, sever merchant uplink immediately. Lock all outgoing frequencies to external range!"
"Command confirmed."
The holographic display lit up with red webwork as dozens of communication lines blinked out one by one.
Zhang's hand hovered over a single switch—the Emergency Alert Key, the red hexagonal panel locked behind tempered glass.
He whispered, almost to himself, "Just one reason. One reason to believe in you."
Talgat's image flickered—his hand now pulling the secondary trigger loose, the timer frozen at 00:12.
"Come on…" Zhang muttered. "Come on…"
But before the timer could reset, another frequency override flashed across the grid—a ghost signal injected from Daren's relay.
The system read it as command authority.
[PRIMARY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.]
[SEQUENCE REINITIALIZED.]
Zhang slammed his hand on the red alert.
Sirens erupted across CSDS.
Metal shutters clanged down over the city's arteries.
"AI!" Zhang barked. "Full Crimson Veil engagement—grid isolation now!"
"Confirmed. Energy containment nodes locking."
The command tier shook under the surge. Red light washed over everything.
From his upper console, Zhang watched the data feeds fracture—streams of cascading light as one relay after another began to overload.
He saw it in three simultaneous screens:
– Talgat, shielding his face as the relay erupted in sparks.
– Daren, realizing too late the detonation was no longer controlled.
– Mrs. Hong's sector, where the power reroutes flickered like veins of blue lightning through the thorium conduits.
The grid sang—an electric shriek that rattled glass and bone alike.
"Containment failure imminent," the AI warned. "Cascade flux detected in east sector."
"Then we brace for it," Zhang said. "Activate emergency barriers. All combat personnel to standby!"
He pressed the intercom. His voice, though calm, cut through the chaos like a blade:
"Attention CSDS units—containment breach possible. Repeat, breach possible. Maintain formation until confirmation of safety. No panic. No retreat."
The words echoed down the spire.
And somewhere deep below, Talgat's breath hitched as white light swallowed his vision.
Zhang turned his gaze toward the panoramic window. Through the shimmer of the dome, he could see the first flicker of energy lancing skyward—electric blue, spreading like veins through glass.
The first detonation had begun.
He didn't look away.
"AI," he said quietly, "prepare post-event probability analysis.
Because if we survive this, I'll need to know which part of us broke first—the system… or the people."