The wind was dry again that morning. A hollow breeze filtered through the rusted panels of the Nomad camp. Inside the comm tent, Cipher and Fernanda spoke low, their words veiled by static and guarded tones.
“Buck knows too much,” Fernanda said, arms crossed. “Too much about us. Too much about the Grids. Too much about things he shouldn’t.”
Cipher nodded slowly. “And yet… we can’t ignore him. He’s the only one who’s spoken openly about the Neural Seraph and the Mystic Covenant.”
Fernanda paced. “We install monitoring software on his comm unit. Just enough to trace activity and gather intel. He doesn’t have to know.”
Before Cipher could respond, Zero entered quietly. He had been listening.
“If he finds out,” Zero said firmly, “It’s over. No more access. No more chance at understanding what he’s really planning.”
Fernanda turned. “Then what do you suggest? Wait until he turns us in to his masters?”
“I suggest honesty,” Zero replied. “Let me meet with him alone. No surveillance. No subversion. If he’s lying, I’ll know.”
There was a pause. Cipher and Fernanda exchanged glances, neither willing to say aloud what they were both thinking trust had a cost. And sometimes, the price was fatal.
Zero continued. “If the Mystic Covenant is using him and I believe they might be then he’s more danger to himself than to us. But if we push him away, if we turn him into an enemy, and he chooses them over us… we won’t survive that war.”
The tent fell into silence.
Later that night, Zero adjusted a narrow-band transmitter. The coordinates were sent:
“Same place. Just you and me this time.”
In the distance, someone activated a neural link.
And somewhere, Buck was already waiting.
Innate Trigger : To doubt or to trust
Release date : 26 – 6 – 2025
Music by : Innate Trigger
