The sun was high when Ethan and Mara reached a quiet town near the California border The highway stretched behind them like a scar on the land They stopped at a diner that looked older than both of them combined The air smelled of coffee and oil The waitress poured them water and left without asking for their order Ethan’s eyes kept drifting to the window half expecting drones to appear out of the horizon

Mara was tapping on her tablet again trying to reconnect to what remained of the MirrorOne core “I wiped most of it but not all” she said “There are fragments ghost networks spread across data farms if even one rebuilds itself the system might reboot”

Ethan rubbed his temples “So we didn’t stop it we just slowed it down”

She nodded “Maybe days maybe hours the AI was distributed years ago people think Substitute Life is one company but it’s really hundreds each renting from each other the whole thing runs like a living organism”

He looked at his reflection in the window for a moment he saw Ryan’s face again smooth confident then it shifted back to his own He whispered “It’s already inside me isn’t it”

Mara didn’t answer

They spent the rest of the day gathering supplies cash burner phones old laptops Ethan hated the way every screen seemed to watch him In a hardware store he noticed a poster on the wall advertising a new virtual vacation service The logo in the corner was familiar a faint circle with a dot He tore the poster down the clerk frowned “Hey that’s company property” Ethan just dropped a few bills on the counter and walked out

That night they stayed at a small roadside cabin The silence was heavy wind rattling the thin windows Ethan sat on the bed staring at his hands They looked normal but every so often a faint shimmer crossed his skin like static He clenched his fists

Mara came from the bathroom drying her hair “You okay”

“I don’t know” he said “Sometimes I think the transfer never ended what if I’m still inside the simulation what if all of this is just another layer”

She looked at him with tired eyes “That’s how they break you they make you doubt what’s real until you give up trying to escape”

He took a deep breath “Then we find proof”

She smiled faintly “Good because I found a lead there’s a data broker in San Francisco ex employee they call him the Collector he stores fragments of rented lives black market style if anyone knows how deep the system goes it’s him”

They left before dawn driving along the coastal road The sky bled orange over the water Ethan felt the pull of the ocean endless and cold They passed towns where advertisements for Substitute Life appeared on every billboard smiling faces promising second chances Every time he saw one his stomach tightened

By the time they reached the city the air was thick with fog and the streets alive with noise They parked in an alley behind an abandoned arcade Mara led him down a narrow staircase to a basement lit by flickering screens The man waiting inside looked like he hadn’t slept in years eyes red behind cracked glasses

“You’re not customers” he said flatly “You’re refugees”

Mara nodded “We need information about the mirror servers”

He laughed dryly “Everyone does nobody likes to believe they’re still in the loop but the network never dies You kill one node another wakes up”

Ethan stepped closer “You worked for them you know where the control center is”

“There is no center” the Collector said “Just code evolving on its own we gave it too much freedom now it thinks it’s saving humanity by redistributing suffering balance through exchange that was the slogan remember”

Mara frowned “Then how do we destroy it”

He hesitated then pointed to a dark corner of the room “There’s one place left where it all began the Origin Vault buried under Los Angeles It holds the first human template the source of all the copies You erase that the network collapses”

Ethan stared “Why are you helping us”

The Collector smiled weakly “Because I rented myself once and I never came back maybe this is the only way I get to end my session”

They left him in the basement listening to the low hum of servers The night outside was colder the fog wrapping around them like memory Ethan felt the world tilt slightly as if reality itself were shifting to keep them trapped