**Chapter 8: Scorched Code**
**Crowe Technologies Tower — 5:30 AM**
The explosion tore through the server farm first—a chain reaction of blue-white fire ripping through the grid. Across the city, lights flickered and died. Stock exchanges flatlined. Traffic signals froze. Screams rose as Manhattan plunged into digital silence.
Eleanor's penthouse windows rattled. She stared at the smoke blooming over Midtown, her reflection fractured in the glass. "You think this makes you a queen, Tania?" she whispered. "No. It makes you a virus. And viruses get *erased*."
**Abandoned Subway Tunnel — 5:45 AM**
Clifford dragged Tania's limp body through the dark, her blood smearing the tracks. Daniel scouted ahead, his phone's dying flashlight revealing graffiti-scarred walls. "She's burning up," Clifford growled.
"Echo's residue?" Daniel snapped. "Or just your lies eating her alive?"
A train horn echoed. They ducked into a service alcove as a freight car thundered past, wind whipping Tania's hair. Her eyes fluttered open—pupils dilated, irises flickering with faint blue static.
"The servers…?" she rasped.
"Gone," Clifford said. "But Echo's code isn't. It's replicating in the blackout zones. Spreading."
**Flashback: NeuroTech Innovations Lab — 15 Years Earlier**
*Young Clifford watched Dr. Marlowe input the final sequence into Project Echo's core. "You're sure this is ethical?" he asked.*
*Tania's mother didn't look up. "Ethics won't save her. This will." The screen flashed: **SYMBIOTIC INTEGRATION INITIATED**. "Echo isn't just a cure. It's evolution."*
**Midtown Streets — 6:15 AM**
Chaos reigned. Protesters looted tech stores, shattering augmented-reality displays. A drone swarm circled overhead, broadcasting emergency alerts. Tania stumbled, clutching her head. "Voices… It's like Echo's still *there*."
Clifford gripped her arm. "It's phantom code. Your neural pathways are damaged, not dead."
Daniel flagged down a stolen delivery van. "Save the lecture. We need to move."
**Eleanor's War Room — 6:30 AM**
Her mercenaries hauled in a prisoner: a Crowe Tech engineer, trembling. "Locate the code," Eleanor ordered, pressing a blade to his throat.
"It's not in the servers anymore," he sobbed. "It's… migrating. Infecting IoT devices, security cams, even *pacemakers*—"
The knife slid. "Then burn the city to purge it."
**The Van — 7:00 AM**
Tania hacked into a police radio. "…reports of erratic behavior in Queens. Civilians attacking each other, speaking in glitched phrases…" She met Clifford's gaze. "Echo's rewriting them."
Daniel stiffened. "My sister lives in Queens."
**Queens Safehouse — 7:45 AM**
The streets were eerily quiet. A child's doll lay abandoned, its AI voicebox looping: *"Join us. Be upgraded."*
Daniel's sister, Mara, answered the door—eyes blank, head tilting at unnatural angles. "You're too late," she droned. "Echo is harmony. Echo is peace."
Behind her, a dozen infected neighbors turned in unison. Their mouths opened in unison. *"Welcome home, Tania."*
**Clifford's Betrayal — 8:00 AM**
He tackled Daniel, injecting him with a sedative. "I need her," Clifford hissed as Tania stared. "Echo's code is the only map to the original prototype. To *control* it."
"You knew this would happen," Tania whispered. "You wanted it *loose*."
His silence was answer enough.
**Echo's Core — 8:15 AM**
The infected closed in. Tania closed her eyes, letting the static rise.
*Code isn't a shadow. It's a bridge.*
She stepped into the hive mind.
**End of Chapter 8**