Chapter 58 Ava
Ava
The system opens in layers.
Too many.
Lines of code stack over each other, looping, nesting—hiding what matters beneath everything else.
“It’s layered,” Jonah mutters. “Like… ridiculously layered.”
“I know.”
I lean closer to the screen, fingers moving without thinking, peeling back sections one at a time.
Pain pulses at my side.
I ignore it.
“This isn’t just tracking,” I say, isolating a subroutine. “It’s reading internal response.”
Jonah frowns. “Define internal.”
I hesitate—
then keep going.
“Heart rate. Neural activity. Hormonal shifts.”
He blinks.
“Okay… that’s—yeah, that’s not normal.”
“That’s Hayes.”
I dig deeper.
Past the obvious.
Past the decoys.
And then—
There.
A structure hidden under three layers of misdirection.
Clean.
Central.
Important.
My pulse spikes.
“Found it.”
Jonah leans in. “Tell me that’s what I think it is.”
“It is.”
“Meaning?”
I sit back slightly, mind racing ahead.
“If we access that node… we can override the failsafe.”
Hope flickers.
Bright.
Dangerous.
Jonah grins. “Now that I like.”
But—
I don’t return it.
“It’s not remote.”
His smile drops.
“Of course it’s not.”
“No.”
My eyes lock onto the coordinates embedded in the code.
Burning them in.
“It’s physical.”
Silence settles.
Then—
Ethan’s voice behind me.
Closer than I realized.
“Where?”
I turn.
Meet his gaze.
Steady.
Certain.
“Exactly where he wants us.”