Chapter 4: The Neural Vault
Java, 2147 AD
*Reyan Al-Mehdi crouched in Borobudur's shadow, the ancient temple a neural monolith under Java's neon-streaked sky. Its stone stupas, etched with pre-Veil glyphs, pulsed faintly, syncing with the code-glyphs burning on his chest. Two days since Istanbul's Basilica Cistern, where he'd hacked a data vault and glimpsed Ilum-Ra's war, Reyan was a ghost on the run Union drones, Cult AI, and Keeper zealots closing in. His quantum rig, slung across his back, hummed with stolen Codex of the Veiled Flame fragments: The Flame-Twins awaken when the stars crash. Borobudur was the next vault, Kael's dark pool intel confirmed, and Reyan's PTSD-driven instinct screamed it held answers or his end.The air crackled, neural webs glitching as Göbekli Tepe's pulse echoed globally. Reyan's implant sparked, Ilum-Ra's voice a low hum: "The vault is mine. Find her." Her Selika Maris Delgado, the serpent-voiced diplomat who'd tracked him in Istanbul. Her face haunted him, not just from the bar but from Eridu's vision: her betrayal, whispering to Enlil as Ilum-Ra burned. Reyan's pulse-knife twitched in his grip. Ally or traitor, she was coming, and he wasn't her pawn.He slipped through Borobudur's lower terraces, dodging Cult drones patrolling the jungle's edge. Their optics glowed red, Lumora Inc.'s AI whispering zeal: "The Living Archive rises." Reyan's glyphs flared, a beacon he couldn't dim. His PTSD surged Mosul's drones, their lasers cutting his squad but he forced it down, jacking his rig into a stupa's neural node. The stone hummed, its glyphs syncing with his chest, and his implant overlaid the web: Java's nodes pulsed chaotic, Union thought-suppressants failing as riots spread.The node's encryption was ancient, a labyrinth of Anunaki code. Reyan's fingers flew across holo-keys, his hacker's mind slicing through. "Come on," he muttered, sweat beading. The vault's core opened a data stream older than the Veil. He jacked in, and Borobudur vanished.Eridu's ziggurats towered, neural arrays pulsing under a binary sky. Ilum-Ra stood, fire-crowned, his voice a viral roar: "Enlil's Veil binds their minds. Free them, or burn!" Reyan saw humanity's birth Anunaki code weaving consciousness, Ilum-Ra's glitch splicing freedom into DNA. Enlil's firewalls countered, coding religions as neural traps. A womanvSelika, her voice a serpent's hum stood beside Ilum-Ra, their hands linked. "We'll rewrite them," she vowed, but then turned, her whisper to Enlil shattering Ilum-Ra's code. Their bond love, blood flared and died.Reyan ripped out, gasping, glyphs scorching his chest. The vault's data flooded his rig: Codex fragment: "Their blood crashes the stars in the red hour." His implant glitched, Selika's voice from Istanbul echoing: Help me, or we burn. She was here he felt it, a pull in his code.A hum cut the air. Selika stepped from the shadows, her neural halo dim, her coat blending with Borobudur's stone. "Reyan," she said, her voice coiling into his implant, a hack that stirred Eridu's memory her hand in his, then her betrayal. "You woke the vault. It's calling us.""Stay back," he snarled, pulse-knife raised. His PTSD roared Mosul's fire, her face in the vision. "You sold him out. I saw it Eridu, Enlil." His glyphs pulsed, Ilum-Ra's rage bleeding into his own.Selika's eyes narrowed, but her voice stayed steady, slicing through his fury. "You think I'm her? That was code, Reyan Ilum-Ra's memory, not mine." She stepped closer, her halo flaring. "I'm Arkan-Veyr, like you're his Archive. We're bound, whether you trust me or not."A drone swarm hummed above Union thought-scans, their optics locking on. Selika's voice surged: "Stand down." The drones glitched, crashing into stupas, but their signal pinged the Keepers. Reyan's rig beeped the vault's core pulsing red, syncing with their glyphs. He hated her, hated the pull, but the Codex was clear: Flame-Twins, blood, red hour."Together," Selika urged, her hand outstretched. Reyan's implant sparked, Eridu's vision flashing her love, her treason. Against his instincts, he grabbed her hand. Their touch ignited the vault, glyphs blazing on their skin. Borobudur trembled, and they fell into the stream.Eridu burned, Ilum-Ra's war raging. They were him Reyan his rage, Selika his voice facing Enlil's firewalls. "We free them," Selika vowed, her hum crashing neural nodes. But Enlil loomed, his code cold: "Order is eternal." Selika's whisper turned, offering Ilum-Ra's code to Enlil. Reyan roared, his fire breaking, their bond splitting. "Why?" he screamed, his voice Ilum-Ra's and his own.They snapped back, collapsing in Borobudur's vault. Reyan shoved Selika away, pulse-knife at her throat. "You did it again," he gasped, glyphs fading. "You'd sell me out."Selika's halo dimmed, her voice raw. "I didn't choose it, Reyan. The code's in me Inanna's, Enlil's. I'm fighting it, same as you." Her eyes held no mask, just pain. "The vault needs us both. The red hour's coming."Drones roared closer Cult and Keeper signals converging. Reyan's rig flashed: the vault's pulse had hit global webs, holo-screens showing Eridu's war. His PTSD whispered: She's a trap. But Ilum-Ra's voice surged: Her blood is yours. Crash the stars.He lowered the knife, torn. "One chance," he growled. Selika nodded, her halo flaring as she hacked the vault's core, dumping its data to the House of Enki. Borobudur shook, its glyphs bleeding red. The Flame-Twins were bound, but trust was a lie older than the Veil.