-eng- Academy Special Police Unit -signit- -ver... -

Dean Halden was not at his desk. He was standing before a wall of antique blackboards, chalk in hand, drawing circuit diagrams that made no sense—feedback loops that curled into mandalas. His eyes, too, were hex-flickering.

“She’s not possessed,” Dray said. “She’s compiled . Someone used the Academy’s own SIGNIT protocols to backdoor her neuroplasticity. She’s becoming a human transmitter.” -ENG- Academy Special Police Unit -SIGNIT- -Ver...

Classroom 404 was silent except for the soft whir of a single student’s neural interface. The student, a prodigy named Mira Shinn, sat rigid at her desk. Her eyes were open, but they flickered—not with saccades, but with hexadecimal . 0x42, 0x45, 0x45… BEE. Dean Halden was not at his desk