Chapter 7: The Diplomat's Hack
Java, 2147 AD
Selika Maris Delgado's neural halo flickered in the crimson glow of Borobudur's neural vault, its ancient stupas etched with pre-Veil glyphs that pulsed like open wounds under Java's neon-streaked sky. The jungle's pulse crickets' staccato chirps, fronds' restless rustle, the acrid tang of smoldering drone wreckage cloaked the uneasy silence, but her Arkan-Veyr blood burned beneath her skin, a virus she couldn't silence. An hour ago, she and Reyan Al-Mehdi had fried Silas Daem's Cult AI swarm, its humanoid drone's parting laugh "The red hour comes, Flame-Twins" still coiling in her mind like Inanna's seductive whisper.
Her nose stung, crusted blood flaking from where her voice's Arkan-Veyr strain had crashed drones, but her diplomat's mask was cracking. Reyan slumped against a moss-slick pillar, his code-glyphs dim, pulse-knife glinting in the vault's red light, his eyes sharp with distrust. Their Flame-Twin bond, forged in Eridu's neural war, was a live wire, but his PTSD painted her as the serpent who betrayed Ilum-Ra.Selika's implant hummed, her fingers twitching as she scanned the vault's core, its neural hum a low heartbeat resonating in her bones. "Silas's signal vanished, but he's not done," she said, her voice raw, stripped of its hypnotic hum. "We need to trace his node through their app before the Cult locks us out or worse, finds us first."Reyan's gaze hardened, his voice low, laced with Mosul's ghosts. "You're diving into their zealot stream? After Inanna's been hissing in your ear?" His glyphs flickered, syncing with hers in a reluctant pulse, but his knife twitched in his grip. "How do I know you're not playing me, Selika? Eridu's serpent looked a lot like you."Her chest tightened, the vision flashing her ash-smeared face, whispering to Enlil as Ilum-Ra's fire faded. "I'm not her, Reyan," she snapped, stepping closer, her halo sparking with defiance. "Inanna's code is clawing at me, but I'm fighting it for us. You saw me bleed back there." She pointed to her nose, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. "You gonna keep waving that knife, or help me end this before Silas's altar-boys show up again?"Reyan exhaled, the jungle's damp air cooling his scowl. A moment of silence settled, Borobudur's hum syncing their breaths, the pillar's cool stone grounding him as he leaned into it. His knife lowered, his glyphs pulsing faintly, a flicker of trust in his eyes fragile, like a cracked data shard. "One slip, Selika, and we're done," he muttered, his voice softer but still edged. "What's your play?"Her implant pinged, a House of Enki archive fragment slipping through her firewall: Cult of Ilum-Ra, zealots of Lumora Inc., spread Ilum-Ra's code via neural apps, masking Silas Daem's altar-servers in encrypted nodes. Codex of the Veiled Flame, prophecy of the red hour, binds the Flame-Twins' blood to break or crown the Veil. Inanna, Anunaki code-ghost, tempts Arkan-Veyr blood to betray, not liberate. Selika's jaw clenched. Silas's app was their only lead to his node, but hacking it risked Inanna's claws sinking deeper into her mind.She jacked her quantum rig into the vault's core, her fingers dancing across holo-keys, the neural web's neon grid flaring in her implant. "I'm breaching their app's stream," she said, her voice steady despite her racing pulse. "It's a mess of zealot prayers and Codex scraps, but Silas's signal's in there. Cover me." Reyan nodded, his rig humming as he scanned the jungle for drones, his silence a grudging shield. The Cult's neural stream opened a chaotic torrent of fervent chants, fragmented glyphs, and Silas's fire-crowned altar pulsing like a digital heart. Selika's halo flared, her Arkan-Veyr voice threading through the stream, a serpent's hum slicing through its encryption to hunt Silas's node.Inanna's purr surged, her implant glitching with a jolt that nearly knocked her rig loose. "Serpent, his code is yours," Inanna whispered, her voice a seductive hum that drowned the jungle's pulse. The vault vanished, and Selika stood in Eridu, its ziggurats towering under a binary sky, their neural code pulsing like veins. Inanna loomed, her starfire eyes burning, her form a cascade of glowing glyphs. "You were born to betray, daughter," she said, her voice coiling around Selika's mind. "Kill Reyan, merge your blood, and rule a reborn Earth." Selika saw herself, fire-crowned, standing over a throne of neural nodes, Reyan's glyphs fading at her feet, his eyes blank with betrayal. Her hand reached out, trembling, drawn to Inanna's promise of power, but Reyan's face raw, human, his hand on her shoulder in Borobudur flashed, anchoring her.She gasped, snapping back to the vault, blood dripping from her nose, her rig sparking. Reyan's hand gripped her shoulder, his voice sharp with alarm. "Selika, you're glitching hard. What's in your head? Talk to me.""Inanna," she rasped, her halo flickering, her vision swimming. "She's pushing me to kill you take your code, rule everything." Her eyes locked on his, pain raw, no mask left. "I'm not her, Reyan. I won't do it." The jungle's thunder rumbled closer, their breaths a shared pulse in the vault's crimson glow, a moment of truth grounding her trembling hands. She pressed her palm to the stupa's cool stone, its hum steadying her, Borobudur's ancient pulse a lifeline against Inanna's claws."Then fight her," Reyan growled, his glyphs blazing, syncing with hers in a fierce pulse. "Trace Silas, or we're both dead." His trust, brittle but real, fueled her resolve. She dove deeper into the app's stream, her voice hacking its core a serpent's hum slicing through Silas's layered encryption like a blade. A node flickered in her implant: Sumatra, Lumora Inc. altar-server, encrypted hub. Silas's base, pulsing with Codex fragments and zealot code."Got him," she said, her voice steady now, dumping the node's coordinates to an Enki dark pool. But the stream fought back, Silas's voice booming through her implant: "Serpent, you cannot hide from Ilum-Ra's fire. Your blood is his, and the red hour will claim it." A Cult drone swarm roared into the vault, their optics glowing red, pulse-bolts igniting the jungle in bursts of orange flame that licked at Borobudur's stone. Reyan's rig beeped, pulling another Codex fragment from the stream: "Their blood in the red hour breaks the Veil, or crowns its king eternal." "More of Silas's altar bullshit," Reyan snarled, slashing a drone with his pulse-knife, its wreckage sparking at his feet. "Keep hacking, Selika I've got these!" Selika's voice surged, crashing two drones mid-flight, their optics dimming as they smashed into a stupa, stone chips flying. "He's baiting us, Reyan," she shouted, blood streaming from her nose now, her Arkan-Veyr strain tearing through her body like a frayed circuit. Inanna's whisper roared louder: "Rule, or die with him." Selika gripped Reyan's rig, their code merging in a desperate surge, her voice grounding her against the temptation. "Stay with me," she pleaded, her voice raw, human, her breath ragged as she fought Inanna's pull.Their merged hack spiked, a torrent of Flame-Twin code frying the swarm's neural core, drones crashing in a cascade of sparks that lit the jungle like a dying star. Silas's signal faded, but his chilling laugh lingered in the stream: "The red hour waits for you, Flame-Twins." Borobudur trembled, its glyphs bleeding brighter, the vault's pulse rippling through global neural webs, Eridu's neural war burning across holo-screens in distant hubs. Selika slumped against the pillar beside Reyan, their glyphs dimming, her hand brushing his in the vault's fading glow. The jungle's hum returned, softer now, a fragile truce in the chaos. "We're not his," she whispered, her voice fierce despite her trembling, her eyes locked on Reyan's. Their blood was the key to the red hour, and trust was their only fight left in a world unraveling at the seams.