Finding Darya took two days.
She wasn't at her apartment. She wasn't at the office. She wasn't at any of the coffee shops she used to frequent. It was like she had vanished.
Echo was the one who found her.
"She's using an old OmniNeuro relay," Echo said, staring at a screen in their hotel room. She had hacked into the city's network using a salvaged memory reader and a lot of patience. "The signal is encrypted, but the signature is hers."
"Where?"
"Undermarket. Different entrance. She's hiding in the old maintenance tunnels beneath the textile factory."
Kaelen stood up. "Let's go."
---
The tunnels were darker than he remembered.
Echo led the way, a small penlight cutting through the black. Water dripped somewhere in the distance. The air smelled of rust and decay.
"She's close," Echo whispered.
They found Darya in a small concrete room that might have once been a boiler room. A single cot. A hot plate. A stack of data pearls on the floor. She sat on the cot, her back against the wall, a neural stunner in her lap.
She didn't look surprised to see them.
"Knew you'd come," she said. Her voice was hoarse. Her eyes were red. She hadn't been sleeping.
"Where's your daughter?" Kaelen asked.
Darya's face crumpled. "Gone. Harlow moved her. I don't know where."
Echo stepped forward. "We can help you find her. But you have to help us first."
Darya laughed — a bitter, broken sound. "Help you? I already helped you. I gave you the stunner. I told you where Echo was. And what did it get me? Nothing. My daughter is still gone."
"Because you're still playing by Harlow's rules," Kaelen said. He sat on the floor across from her, his back against the opposite wall. "You're hiding. Running. That's what she wants."
"What else can I do? I'm one person. She has an army."
"She had an army." Echo sat next to Kaelen. "Half her enforcers walked out when Kaelen spoke to them. They're out there now, scattered. Waiting for someone to lead them."
Darya looked up. Her eyes narrowed. "Lead them where?"
"Against OmniNeuro," Kaelen said. "Against Harlow. We tear down the Memory Integrity Division. We free the prototypes. We destroy the kill switch. And we make sure no one ever builds another memory thief again."
Darya stared at him for a long moment. Then she laughed again — but this time, it wasn't bitter. It was almost hopeful.
"You're insane," she said.
"Probably."
"You're going to get us all killed."
"Also probably."
She looked at Echo. At Kaelen. At the stunner in her own lap.
Then she stood up.
"Okay," she said. "I'm in. But we do this my way. No heroics. No speeches. We plan, we execute, and we get my daughter back."
Kaelen stood and offered his hand. Darya shook it.
"Welcome back," he said.
---
They spent the next week planning.
Darya knew OmniNeuro's systems better than anyone. She had worked there for fifteen years before Kaelen hired her. She knew the security rotations, the blind spots, the backup generators.
Echo knew the building's layout from her time in the tank. She had been sedated, but her subconscious had recorded everything — the sounds, the smells, the location of every door.
Kaelen knew Harlow.
"She won't expect us to attack," he said. "She thinks we're running. Hiding. That's what she'd do in our position."
"She's not wrong," Darya said. "Running and hiding is the smart move."
"Since when have we been smart?"
Echo smiled. "Never."
They gathered the enforcers who had walked out — twelve of them, led by the woman with close-cropped hair. Her name was Sol. She had been with OmniNeuro for eight years. She had emptied hundreds of memories. She had nightmares every night.
"I want to make it right," Sol said. "Whatever it takes."
The others nodded. They were tired. Haunted. But they were ready.
---
The night before the attack, Kaelen sat on the roof of the hotel.
Echo found him there, sitting on the edge, his legs dangling over the street below. The city spread out before them — a sea of lights and shadows.
"Can't sleep?" she asked.
"Too much to think about."
She sat next to him. Their shoulders touched. She was warm now — fully recovered, her skin no longer cold from the tank.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"Tomorrow. Whether we survive. Whether any of this matters."
Echo was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Do you remember the first thing you ever said to me?"
Kaelen thought back. The memory was still patchy in places. "No."
"You walked into my storage room in the OmniNeuro lab. I was in a glass tank, just like the others. You pressed your hand against the glass and said, 'You're not just a hard drive. You're a person. And I'm going to prove it.'"
Kaelen's throat tightened. "I said that?"
"You did. And then you spent six months teaching me how to talk, how to think, how to feel. You read me books. You played me music. You told me about your life — the parts you remembered, anyway."
"I don't remember any of that."
"Because you erased it." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "But I remember. I remember everything."
Kaelen put his arm around her. "Then you'll have to remember for both of us."
"Always."
They sat in silence, watching the city, waiting for the morning.
Tomorrow, they would go to war.