Chapter 31. #2
Zafyra’s humanoid marched over to him, its footsteps slow and mechanical. The contractor glanced up at the camera, then back to the screen, where data appeared as if she were feeding him the passkeys to the system.
Zafyra quietly cleared her throat, though her voice still came out raspy. “He’s sending… the beans. In batches.”
My jaw clenched as I glanced over at her. “To where?”
“Various anchor points.” Her eyelids fluttered. “I’ll let you know where we need to pick them up… just… first…”
A curved control panel flickered to life beneath the contractor’s touch.
His fingers moved with precision across a virtual interface, flipping through encrypted menus and authorizations I wouldn’t even try to decode.
As he confirmed the upload, the crate began to shimmer – slowly at first, then rapidly pulsing with unstable blue light.
A sound like a glass violin being dragged across stone echoed through the chamber.
Then, with a muted implosion, the crate vanished.
Noise at the door turned my head, and Joey followed.
“I came as fast as I could.” Raphael stepped into the room, looking from the three of us to the TV. “What in the name of the developer is going on here?”
“We’re watching Zafyra’s memories on my TV.” Joey grimaced, clearly not happy with the fact. “Apparently, she possessed one of the humanoid guards at the Somanode factory, then used its information to hack the security, allowing a contractor she hired off the dark web to—”
Zafyra hissed sharply – the force of it so shocking in her current state, even Joey shut his mouth.
We all turned our gazes back to the screen.
All at once, the factory lights snapped to red.
A harsh alarm blared overhead, more jarring for its distorted, digital edge, like a siren caught in a feedback loop.
Emergency floodlights activated in stuttering bursts, casting sharp shadows across the walls as rows of internal cameras rotated in perfect unison to lock on the intruder.
Out of instinct, I pressed my hands to my ears, the whimper leaving my mouth before I could stop myself.
The contractor froze mid-step, eyes wide behind his visor.
He turned to the exit – but before he could take another step, a flash of movement cut through the frame.
A defense drone dropped from the ceiling like a steel wasp and discharged a needle-thin bolt directly into his chest. A crackle of electricity, followed by the thud of a collapsing body, and then stillness.
My hands flew to my mouth in a silent scream.
“Holy developer.” Raphael’s eyes widened.
Zafyra’s humanoid unit pivoted sharply, eyes scanning the room as the HUD fractured.
A new overlay bloomed across her field of vision: “CORE ANOMALY DETECTED. EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN ENGAGED.” She tried to move, but her limbs locked.
A cold wave of static washed across the screen as the neural feed cut violently before everything blinked to darkness.
For a moment, we all sat there in silence, trying to process what we’d just seen.
A soft groan from the couch made our heads turn to Zafyra. Her eyes rolled back as she relaxed into the couch.
“Can you help her?” My voice cracked despite myself. “Please, Raphael – whatever you know, do something.”
Raphael knelt beside the couch, one hand reaching carefully toward Zafyra’s jaw. She didn’t flinch, but her eyes fluttered – caught somewhere between present and dissociation.
“She’s still in there,” he murmured, his tone half-reassurance, half-evaluation. “But her neural core’s been hit hard.”
My grip on Zafyra’s hand tightened – did I imagine it, or had her skin become even colder?
Raphael pressed two fingers gently against the side of her neck. Only now did I notice a faint blue pulse flickering beneath.
“I suppose Somanode has been alerted to suspicious behavior, which triggered a built-in autodestruct,” he said finally, glancing up at Joey and me.
“Her essence didn’t have time to withdraw cleanly.
The corrupted data flooded back to her slumbering body – she’s lucky she must’ve been slumbering close by our apartment, Jo.
I’m honestly impressed she even made it here. ”
I glanced down at Zafyra, half expecting her to react with one of her sharp retorts – but she barely moved. That alone was more terrifying than everything else.
“Can you help her?” I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“I can stabilize her.” Raphael leaned in. “But it won’t be pretty.”
“I don’t care, please, just help her.”
“She’s glitching,” Raphael muttered. “It’s like half of her system thinks it’s still inside the humanoid.”
He unfastened the clasp at the base of his throat – I hadn’t noticed it before.
Underneath, a dimly glowing node pulsed faintly.
“I can spike her with directed low-grade radiation – just enough to force a soft reboot. Originally designed to combat software infections or nanovirus clusters, I can use this to cleanse her neural system.”
“A reboot?” I swallowed thickly. “Will she—will she still have her memories? Will she still be… her?”
“Of course.” Raphael looked at me as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “Think of it like… restarting a human’s heart through electrical shocks. It won’t affect her long-term storage. Her core essence is protected – I’m just clearing out the scrambled noise in her interface.”
Not much more reassuring, but we had little choice. I nodded slowly, eyes locked on her closed eyelids as I counted the seconds in my head.
A tremor ran through her body as he activated the pulse. Static crackled through the air, and her skin lit up briefly with faint electric threads, like veins of light just under the surface.
For a few agonizing moments, nothing happened.
Then, her eyes flickered open. “Now that took you long enough.”
Raphael groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Not even a thank you?”
“Thank god.” Without realizing, I crouched down to wrap my arms tightly around her. I could tell my emotions surprised her, but after a brief hesitation, she answered my embrace. “Thank god, you’re back.”
“Of course. Did you think you could get rid of me so easily?”
I smiled through my tears. Pulling back slightly, I studied her at arm’s length. “How are you feeling?”
Zafyra stayed silent for a while, thinking the question through. Her tongue touched the inside of her cheek. She lifted her hands to study her fingers before glancing back up at me.
“Better,” she said after a pause. “Not fully back to myself yet.”
“It may take a while. You’ve suffered serious damage to your circuits – it may take a few days to weeks for the neural pathways to recover fully.
You’re not going to like this, but the more you rest, the faster you’ll recover.
” Raphael crossed his arms as he stood. “Now, I’ll have you know I interrupted my seminar for this, just as we were getting to the point of how to get rich with crypto – so surely, you’ll understand you have to do a lot to make it up to me. ”
“Wait, your seminar was about that?” Joey groaned, closing his eyes for a moment. “Raph, no one gets rich with crypto anymore – that bubble has burst decades ago. I understand you’re new to this world, but please, don’t become a cowboy.”
“Oh.” Raphael frowned like a kid whose favorite toy was broken. For lack of a better answer, he sank down into the comfortable chair beside Joey.
“Now what the fuck were you thinking?” Now that my concerns had eased, flaming anger replaced them. “Going in there on your own to steal those beans – without as much as consulting with us? Why the fuck would you do such a thing?”
Even Joey and Raphael seemed shocked by my outburst, but I ignored their frowns as my eyes narrowed at Zafyra.
She blinked slowly, confusion crossing her face. “We needed those beans to project our simulation onto, didn’t we? Or did one of you have a better idea? Because it sure didn’t seem like it.”
Joey and Raphael exchanged looks. Technically, she was right – we hadn’t yet found a solution to this, but I was too pissed to care.
“You know that’s not what I mean.” I clenched my teeth. “Why did you go in there on your own?”
Zafyra frowned. For a few moments, she just stared at me – then, to my confusion, she lowered her gaze.
“I needed you to know I wasn’t playing,” she said barely audibly.
“You talked about earning your forgiveness – this is how I thought to do so. With actions, not empty words.” Her jaw clenched, and she reluctantly added, muttering: “Also, I was sure I could play it off without getting caught. Hack a humanoid, ship the beans, get out – how hard could it be?”
I was too stunned to speak.
“That is… wow.” Joey blinked slowly. “I mean, you didn’t have to do this, but I guess I accept your apology.”
“Not you, dummy.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care what you think. Morgan’s forgiveness is all I care about.”
Joey huffed in indignation before jumping up. “You know what? Fuck this shit. I’m making dinner.”
“Oh, hell no.” Raphael jumped to his feet – moving faster than I had ever seen him. “I’m not letting you burn the lasagna again.”
Joey scowled at him. “That was once, and only because you distracted me. Stop acting like I can’t cook – or do it yourself, since you know it all so well.”
“Gladly,” Raphael sputtered.
Bickering, they made their way into the kitchen. Even as the door slammed shut behind them, their raised voices were still audible.
Zafyra slowly turned her head toward me. Despite everything, it was relieving to see her eyes had found their spark back.
My sigh rose all the way from my toes. For a moment, I stayed silent, searching for the right words. “Look, I appreciate the gesture – but don’t ever do something like this again.”
Her eyes lit up at the command in my voice, something she wasn’t used to coming from me. Biting her lip, she nodded slowly. “So you forgive me? For the murders, and all?”
“Sure,” I spoke through gritted teeth. “Damn it. I just wanted a verbal apology, not you risking your life to steal those damn beans.” I paused. “You have a physical body now. You’re no longer the invincible tech god you thought you were, okay? I don’t want to see you get hurt ever again.”
For a moment, the thought seemed to upset her – like she had still not come to terms with her new reality.
“But on the plus side…” She pushed herself up, her usual provocative gleam returning to her eyes. “We have the beans now. We can proceed with our plan.”
I hid my face in my hands.
“We’ll need to talk about this,” I muttered, more to myself than to her. “But not now. We both need to rest first.” I inhaled slowly, and my next words surprised even me. “How about dinner sometime?”