Abuja – Federal Intelligence Crisis Unit (FICU) – 6:12 A.M. – Morning After Unity Gala
The FICU war room buzzed with frantic energy. Every monitor lit up with images from the Unity Gala leak: the subject files, the live confrontation, and the reactions pouring in from across the nation and beyond. The country was spiraling.
General Arase, a hardened man with a voice like gravel and eyes like razors, stepped forward.
"Blackout Abuja," he barked. "Gridlock comms in and out of the capital. I want facial scans from the gala cross-referenced with travel logs in the last 72 hours. Anyone who coughed suspiciously last night — flag them."
"But, sir," an officer muttered, "half the country supports him now. Tunde Ajayi Bako… he's trending above the presidency on every global net."
Arase growled, "Then we remind them what happens when you fall in love with ghosts."
....
Lagos – NDLEC Rebel Safehouse – 9:00 A.M.
Tunde stood shirtless, bruised, hands taped, looking at a wall of maps, news clippings, and strike plans. His face showed no joy, only resolve.
Arewa entered quietly. "You didn't just shake the tree last night. You cut the whole thing down."
"I didn't mean to become a symbol," he said.
He stepped closer. "You became the truth."
Alero joined them, her voice sharp. "It's not over. Bako's gone to ground. But Samira… she didn't run. She vanished. I think she's activating the final contingency buried inside SynGen's failsafes."
Tunde frowned. "What failsafes?"
Glyph piped in from a corner, tapping on a screen. "Something called Protocol Jericho. Coded into SynGen's neural archives. Last resort. It's locked tighter than military AI."
Ejiro added, "Whatever it is, it's big. Some of these files reference 'Phase 3: Cognitive Reset.' Could be mass neural override. Could be... engineered collapse of public memory."
Arewa's eyes went wide. "A digital lobotomy of the nation?"
Alero turned to Tunde. "We need to get to the central node in Warri. That's where SynGen's wet-server farms are stored. If we're going to stop this, it'll be there."
....
Warri – Delta Tech Axis – Same Day
In the heat and smoke of Warri's underbelly, where old oil rigs had been converted into neural servers and tech conglomerates competed with criminal syndicates, the SynGen node tower stood like a dark monolith.
Rumor had it that Protocol Jericho was embedded beneath the mainframe — written in quantum code, activated by biometric access only someone from Project Husk could unlock.
Tunde.
....
Abuja – Presidential Safe Quarters – Afternoon
President Nwachukwu sat in silence, his face pale, fingers shaking as he read the ThroneFiles for the seventh time
His Chief of Staff entered. "Sir… the Defense Council wants blood. Bako's in hiding. Samira is AWOL. Half the NDLEC has defected to Tunde's cause. What's our move?"
The President looked up. "We let the country burn for too long. Maybe this is the fire we deserve."
....
Benin City – Eastern Rebel Camp – Nightfall
Tunde and the rebel core regrouped. Alero spread out a map of Warri's tech districts.
"Operation Sever begins at dawn. We breach the SynGen node tower, extract the Protocol Jericho root, and shut it down before Samira flips the kill switch."
"Security?" Tunde asked.
"Armed mercs. SynGen loyalists. But worst of all…" she pointed at a red marker on the map, "…they've reactivated one of the other Husk candidates."
Everyone froze.
"Who?" Arewa asked.
"Subject 98X. Codename: Zuma."
Ejiro muttered, "That's the one that went rogue. Wiped out three bases in under 48 hours before going dark."
Alero nodded grimly. "Samira just turned the deadliest Husk against his own kind."
Tunde clenched his jaw. "Then we'll remind him what family really means."
...
Somewhere Underground – SynGen Dark Core Facility
Samira stood in the dark, staring at a massive vertical tank filled with pale blue liquid.
Inside floated a tall, muscular figure, eyes closed, body covered in data scars — Zuma.
A tech beside her asked, "Are you sure you want to wake him?"
Samira smiled faintly. "He remembers pain. He remembers war. But most importantly — he remembers Tunde."
She pressed her palm against the screen.
"Time to send a message."