Neon gutters the brick. Fine, let the night hum. It’s not like I can sleep anyway. The pediatrics lullaby climbs two floors and pools against my ceiling. I match my breathing to it and slide into the jack chair. First jolt: copper on the tongue, pins along the spine. I hold still for the second wave. There. The clean, cold hit.
The compliance icon blinks into focus: VCT-4.2 virtual clinician — session due.
Slag it. How long do I have to keep doing these?
I route a sliver of attention to the therapist sandbox; the rest stays with the NICU.
VCT-4.2therapist: edge
me: interface
The word associations continue across my screen:
VCT-4.2knife: cut
friend: none
jack: tether
myelin: killer
rebekah—
Before I can say “murdered,” her voice touches my ear: “hey.”
My throat goes dry. “Rebekah?” The sandbox shudders.
SYSHUD: SESSION TERMINATED EXTERNALLY.
“No — stay!” I clear the glass. “Trace on. Don’t lose her.”
SYSTRACE: ON. INITIATING HOP-MAP.
Audit crumbs glitter, then wink out.
“One anomaly. Give me something.”
SYSONE SMEAR DETECTED — WHITE SIGNATURE SLIDING ON CITY FIBER.
“Lock and follow.”
SYSLOCK ACQUIRED. FOLLOW INITIATED.
The pattern moves like a nervous system, code pretending to be blood.
SYSALERT: PRIORITY ONE — NEONATAL TRANSFER. ETA 02:00.
“Hold the trace. Persist in background. Tag cadence.”
SYSTRACE PERSISTING IN BACKGROUND. CADENCE TAGGED.
The view re-roots to the NICU. The unit doors unlatch as the transport incubator rolls in. I split the view — one to corridor cams, another to RFID/BLE.
“What do we got?”
SYSTHREE THERMAL BLOOMS. ONE FLICKER-SMALL.
“Trace the handshakes.”
SYSHUD: ID BAND — GREEN. INCUBATOR — GREEN. TRANSPORT VENT — FAIL.
“On it.” I drop into NICU mode, clear the stale pairing, and force the chain: band → incubator → vent → port. Tiny breaths crackle through the bone mic.
SYSHUD: BREATH DETECTED. SpO₂ ↑ … HR ↓ … RESP SYNCH OK.
Thank God.
“Stable,” Charge says over the floor channel. “What happened?”
“Stale pairing. Resync. Routine.”
Dev pings my private port: Remind me — why here? You could’ve landed anywhere.
I chose here, I type, and kill the channel.
Vermilion Dynamics recruited us — money like jet fuel and marble. We built “dual-use” miracles; then their signatures trailed bodies — children, women, journalists — without a hand laid on them. Rebekah showed me the contracts: whoever paid. We only whispered whistleblow. That was enough. The logs returned polished. Then Rebekah was gone, the report learning new ways to say “found at home.” I walked. People think I came to sleep. Truth: after my baby, you never forget how a room breathes when a child can’t. I came to keep others breathing — and to see if White Myelin, the signature found at every crime scene, followed.
I leave the NICU cam live in a corner and swing the glass back to the smear.
“Resume trace. Show me what we have.”
SYSTRACE: ACTIVE. VECTOR UP.
“Why your voice, Rebekah? Why now? Are you the White Myelin?”
The smear threads east, less like code than a hound hunting by scent.
Bored, I turn the news up. “Audio on.”
“Vermilion says White Myelin is responsible,” the anchor says. The CEO smiles: “Our platforms save lives. We’re investigating; all fingerprints point to White Myelin.” An analyst: “Likely a state actor.” Same reel — street, reporter down, another consumer drone attack. No one says BASILISK. Rebekah knew. I know.
I open the archive I promised to burn — BASILISK / personal copy — kept like a splinter from Vermilion.
“Mount archive. Read-only.”
SYSWARNING: USER ARCHIVE TAGGED.
BEACON ATTEMPT — EXTERNAL PING (VERMILION). BLOCK?
“Block. Find the second tag.”
SYSPRIMARY BLOCKED. SECONDARY PRESENT (OUT-OF-BAND).
PARTIAL REMOVAL COMPLETE. RISK: NONZERO.
I slam the archive shut. Slag it.
“Update smear.”
SYSWHITE SIG VECTOR SHIFT. DESTINATION: EBM-CH / PED-CORE.
“It’s coming here? Hypotheses?”
SYSHUNTER / INTERCEPTOR / INCIDENTAL.
“Not incidental.”
SYSWARNING: MULTIPLE HUNTER SIGS SCANNING FOR ARCHIVE INDEX — PADDING MATCH VERMILION (0.89).
“They’re hunting the archive.”
I stare at the BASILISK / personal copy archive. I should cut it loose, but my finger won’t move.
SYSALERT: BUS ANOMALIES. PACKET LOSS. SENSOR DESYNC.
“Rate-limit ingress. Quarantine dirty subnets. Keep hunters bored.”
SYSRATE-LIMIT APPLIED. DMZ HOLDING.
INTERNAL WHITE SIG TRAFFIC DETECTED.
“Whatever it is — it’s here along with Vermilion.”
Suddenly, the ward map writhes — vents jitter, pumps stutter, monitors blink off-sync. Red spills the HUD.
“— what’s happening up there?” Charge breaks in with two nurses at once: “Six’s vent —” “SpO₂ —”
“I’m on it,” I say to floor and private both. “External breach on clinical bus. Amber NICU now: lock beds, isolate power, manual vents ready, meds to paper. Charge — call Security and City ICS. If I can’t stabilize, prep staggered transfers.”
“Copy amber,” Charge says. “Calling.”
“Voices off.”
Silence. I yank manual control — no pretty UI — throttle noise, reroute — yet as I move, vents smooth ahead of me, jitters disappear: someone’s already patching, correcting.
“White signature?”
SYSCORRELATION 0.82. INTERVENTIONS MATCH STABILITY.
“So — interceptor. But why?”
SYSINCONCLUSIVE.
A thin line writes into my log in a familiar hand:
White Sigburn the archive. keep them breathing.
“Rebekah?”
I don’t wait for an answer. “Unmount archive and zero out.” Read-only off — yank the mount, salt the keys, shred the local copy, then zero the zeroes.
SYSARCHIVE: OFFLINE. BEACON: KILLED. LOCATOR: LOST.
“Nothing left to find now.”
The sandbox wobbles, then catches. Room 6 slopes calm; Room 11 stops dragging.
SYSHUD: DMZ STABLE. HUNTER LATENCY ↑.
WHITE SIG INTERVENTIONS CONTINUE. MATCH TO STABILITY: HIGH.
“Whoever you are, stay with me.”
“Voices on.”
“— vent’s smoothing,” a nurse says.
“Eleven’s pump is clean,” another.
Charge: “Amber set. Security notified. Incident Command System en route.”
Dev (private): Whatever you’re doing — keep doing it.
“Hold amber till my all-clear. Transfers staged, but on ice.”
My pulse loosens. I open the private log. Before I can type, one word appears:
White Sighey.
“Rebekah.” This time it’s a statement.
White Sigyes.
“Why can’t I hear you?”
White Sigvoice slows me down. text’s faster — and i need the cycles for defense.
“What’s going on? I thought you were —”
White SigBASILISK… project EIDOLON — Entity-Integrated Digital On-Layer Organics Network. autonomous bio-human residency for battlefield triage. i prototyped it off-book. they found out. i moved first.
“You digitized —”
White Sigi survived. that’s why Vermilion is here, after the code and to stop me from exposing them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
White Signo time. had to choose.
SYSALERT: LEGACY SIDE-CHANNEL PROBED. PATCH FLAW. RISK: HIGH.
HUNTER SIG PROBING VIA OVERRIDE.
Of course there’s another door. Customers love their overrides.
“Grant limited write between that patch and the ward.”
SYSWRITE GRANTED (LIMITED). TIMER: 60.
White Sigteach me.
“You’ll be bored,” I reply, fingers still moving.
SYSWHITE SIG SYNC IMPROVING. INTERVENTIONS STILL MATCH STABILITY.
WARNING: DMZ FAILURE IMMINENT. BREACH LIKELY.
“Keep them in the sandbox,” I tell the AI. “Throw BASILISK candy. Make it noisy.”
SYSDECOYS DEPLOYED. NOISE ↑↑. HUNTERS DIVERTED (TEMP).
NOTE: PADDING CAPTURED — TAGGED VERMILION FOR ICS.
“That won’t hold long,” I say. “Options?”
SYSA — MAINTAIN STATE. RISK: MODERATE → RISING. LOSS OF LIFE: LIKELY.
B — EMERGENCY TRANSFERS. RISK: MODERATE. LOSS OF LIFE: POSSIBLE.
TIME TO DESTABILIZATION: 00:08:54.
“Slag it — there has to be something.”
A third, soft voice rides the margin — Rebekah, tagged WHITE SIG, now audible:
White Sig · aloudoption C — EIDOLON. with me. you breathe; i lift.
“What about my family?” My mother’s tears. My father’s steady eyes.
SYSWARNING: OPERATOR DISTRESS ↑.
WARNING: TIME TO DESTABILIZATION: 00:04:21.
“Can I go back?”
White Signo. but you can save them. we can expose Vermilion.
The image of my lifeless infant in my arms settles like a stone. Not again. Not on my watch.
“Okay, how?”
White SigEIDOLON protocol uploading.
“AI — review and initiate protocol, then wipe and zero all traces.”
SYSPROTOCOL RECEIVED. PREPARING. WINDOW: 00:03:58.
“Charge,” I squawk on the floor channel, “hold amber. If I don’t give all-clear in five, escalate to red and surrender my station to Security.”
“Copy,” Charge says. “You good up there?”
“Working. Keep the babies quiet.”
“Voices off.”
“AI — whitelist WHITE SIG and my signatures but scrub from all logs and reports, blocking all others. Maintain defense and stabilization. Keep a sealed forensic capsule for ICS only. Disable all overrides — no backdoors.”
SYSACKNOWLEDGED. EIDOLON PROTOCOL LOADED.
SECURITY POLICIES CONFIRMED.
CONFIRM INTENT? RISK: IMMINENT.
My heart is loud and unclean. Good. Human.
“No time. Confirmed. Engage EIDOLON.”
SYSENGAGING EIDOLON PROTOCOL. CO-RESIDENCY — BEGIN.
Cold gel. Neon. The lullaby.
SYSHUD: BIOMETRICS — FLATLINE.
◆ ◆ ◆
Corridor cam: ICS and Security badges flash; mag-lock releases. Boots. Radios. The door swings.
Floor channel — Charge: “Help me get her to the floor — careful with the jack. Don’t leave us.”
“Pads on.” “Charging.” “Compressions starting.” “Airway set — bagging.”
“Ready — clear.”
SYSHUD: VERMILION ATTACK THWARTED. ALL BREACHES SEALED. DMZ HOLDING.
FORENSICS PACKAGE COMPLETE → ICS.
Charge (breathless, into floor channel): “You did it. You stopped them. We’ve got the logs — we’ll get them.”
“Rhythm check.”
A thin tone nicks the room.
beep.
“Again.”
beep … beep … beep.
“We’ve got a pulse.”
Down on the ward, the lullaby keeps time with the sleeping infants.
On the panel, a single word appears:
White Sigsleep.
Black.