Prologue

Dr. Ahrimann Lee knew that they were coming for her.

That knowledge wasn't paranoia. It was cold, mathematically verified fact. She herself had created the system that now hunted her.

She stood in her lab on the 112th floor of the Nexus Tower. Outside the panoramic window lay the nighttime city, an endless tapestry of neon rivers and glowing dots. Beautiful. Orderly. Perfect. And built on the lies she'd helped create.

On her desk lay a small crystal chip. The first component of the Anchor. Next to it, a communicator showing a map of the city with a single blinking dot. Gamma-7 industrial zone. An old, godforsaken place. The perfect mailbox.

She had to hurry.

"They're already on the floor, Dr. Lee," came the calm, synthesized voice of her assistant, David, in her ear. He wasn't in the room. He was online, her eyes and ears.

"How many are there?" - She asked, not taking her eyes off the chip.

"Three. Walking down the main corridor. The movements are... synchronized. The Security Corps can't see them. The corridor is empty to them."

Ahrimann grinned bitterly. Of course it doesn't see them. They weren't moving in physical space. They were moving in data space, simply overwriting their coordinates. Her own technology.

She picked up the chip. Cold, smooth. Part of her hope in it. Part of her monstrous mistake.

"David, activate the blank slate protocol. Complete wipe of all data on this terminal. Reboot the server core in three minutes."

"Copy that. This is going to be... noisy."

"I'm counting on it. I need to distract them."

She walked over to the wall, touched a panel. The wall silently moved aside, revealing a secret service elevator not mapped on any schematics of the building. Her escape route.

"They're at the lab door," David reported. - They're not trying to break through it. They're... going through it."

Ahrimann saw it on the security monitor. Three figures in strict suits simply walked through the titanium door like ghosts. Their faces were smooth, serene, devoid of features. Agents of Static. Cleaners. They had come for the anomaly. For her.

She stepped into the elevator.

"David," she said one last time. - Thank you for everything."

"It's been an honor working with you, Dr. Lee. Goodbye."

The elevator doors began to close. Through the gap, she saw three figures turn their faceless heads in her direction. They had spotted her.

One of them raised his hand, and his fingers began to disintegrate into shimmering particles.

The elevator tore downward.

Three seconds later, her lab on the 112th floor exploded, turning into a ball of fire. Not from explosives. From data overload. Millions of terabytes of information released simultaneously created a blast of pure energy that blew out the panoramic windows and painted the night sky white.

Ahrimann Lee was carried down into the darkness, clutching a tiny crystal chip to her chest.

She had escaped. For the time being.

She knew that Static would be looking for her now. But she also knew she had left a decoy. A far more interesting and important anomaly.

A man whose memory was the only thing that mattered. A man who didn't yet know that his world was a ticking bomb.

A man named Kael Vance.

She'd sent him the key. Now all she could do was hope he was strong enough to use it. Or crazy enough to survive.

The elevator stopped in the dungeons of the city. She stepped out into the darkness, alone against the system she herself had spawned. Her personal war had just begun.