Chapter 8 Debug Eye

"An exploit," Lyra said. "What does that mean?"

"Give me a second." He closed his eyes, focusing on the shape sitting inside his chest. "It's like a file with no program to open it."

"That tells me nothing."

"I'm working on it."

He pushed at it the way he used to push at broken code, patient, careful, and slowly it unfolded in front of him like a schema.

SKILL: GRANITE STRIKE RAW. TRIGGER: PHYSICAL STRIKE. BASE DAMAGE: 280 + (STR X 1.2). CLASS FLAG: ASHFIELD SOVEREIGN NON-TRANSFERABLE. SYSTEM STATUS: ORPHANED / NULL-CONTAINED.

"I can read it," he said, eyes still shut. "Every piece."

"Can you use it?"

"No. The flag locks it. Belongs to the creature, not me." He opened his eyes. "But I can see how it works."

Lyra crossed her arms, wincing at the movement. "That shouldn't be possible."

"I know."

"Skills belong to classes. They live inside the System. You don't have a class."

"I know that too."

"So how?"

"I don't know yet. I'm calling it Debug Eye. Whatever it is, it lets me read things I shouldn't be able to touch."

She studied him, something wary behind her eyes now that hadn't been there before. "Your suppression. The combat flag on you."

She went still. "What about it?"

"What exactly is being suppressed?"

Her jaw tightened. She looked away. "Not something I'm ready to talk about."

"Okay," he said, and let it go.

They walked north through the jagged terrain, Kane testing his sight on everything they passed. Most of what he read came back in fragments, half readable, but each piece added something to a shape still forming in his head.

"There," he said, stopping near a dead thing half buried in ash. "Another Null."

Lyra crouched beside it. No wounds. No blood. Almost peaceful.

"How long ago?" she asked.

"Two hours. Maybe less."

"No creature did this."

"No creature did this." He pulled up his own purge timer out of habit, and froze.

PURGE TIMER: 51:14:02. PURGE METHOD: DIRECT VITAL TERMINATION SYSTEM AUTHORIZED.

"Kane. What is it?"

"My purge," he said slowly. "It's not going to be a hunter."

"What do you mean?"

"It's going to be the System itself. Reaching in and stopping my heart. Same as this one." He nodded at the body.

She stood fast. "Then we move faster than we have been."

"Maybe not."

"Explain."

"It already tried once. Back at the checkpoint, that pulse. Nothing happened. My body isn't registered the way everyone else's is." He glanced at the dead Null. "Maybe it can't reach into something it can't see."

"That's a big maybe to stake your life on."

"I haven't had many small ones lately."

She didn't argue with that.

They kept moving until the light started to fade at the edges, and found an old watchtower on a low rise. Empty. One entrance. As defensible as anything got out here.

"We rest," Lyra said. "I take first watch."

Kane sat against the inner wall, legs finally allowed to stop, and pulled a piece of charred wood from the ash near his boots. He started writing on the stone floor.

Ghost Step. Debug Eye. Skill absorption, name pending.

He stared at the list a long time.

"You're still writing things down," Lyra said from the doorway, not turning.

"It helps me think."

"Most people just try to survive."

"Same thing, where I come from."

She was quiet after that, watching the dark line where ash met sky. Kane kept adding to his list, small details, guesses, things he wasn't sure of yet but wanted to remember trying.

Then Lyra went still.

"Kane."

Something in her voice made him drop the charcoal.

"What?"

"Someone's coming."

He was up fast, moving to the narrow window. Far off, a single figure walked toward the tower, no attempt at stealth at all, moving with a confidence that turned Kane's stomach cold.

"One person," Lyra whispered. "Not a squad."

"Hunter?"

"I don't know."

The figure kept coming, close enough now that Kane could see light armor, a sword sheathed at the hip, an unhurried pace. It stopped below the tower and looked straight up, straight at Lyra.

Then it raised both hands, empty, palms out.

"I know there's a Null up there," the man called. "I could see the anomaly from two kilometers off."

Lyra's grip tightened on her sword. "Who are you?"

"Not a hunter," he said. "My name is Seran. I'm Rank A."

Kane's blood went cold at the number.

"And I need to talk," Seran said, "to whoever you're traveling with."