Page 270 of Primal

Alias: Steve

Position: Systems Engineer

Status: Terminated–Unauthorized data extraction / breach of NDA

Flagged: Red Level Termination—No Severance / No Re-entry / No Exceptions

Photo: [DATA CORRUPTED]

Background:

Former military—Signals intelligence.

Honorably discharged.

Recruited post-service for tactical systems integration.

Access level: High-tier dev ops, legacy zones, deep-stack architecture.

Notes:

Terminated for unauthorized extraction of sensitive footage. Further details classified.

The feed flickers—and one by one, cameras snap to life again. No control from my end.

One of them shows Payton.

Running.

Another displays a hallway. Empty. Until the image rewinds itself five seconds. Then again. A glitch on loop. A breadcrumb.

The screen flickers once more—and a message appears.

you’re getting warm.

keep digging and she’s next.

I grip the desk. Over my dead body.

Camera 9 flickers.

Jessica’s slouched against a tree, head lolling toward the lens.

Staring.

Then—gone. Back to empty woods.

Neck Tat’s coffee cup hits the floor. “What the actual fuck? Who was that?”

Sandwich Guy freezes mid-sip. “Think she’s okay?”

“Looks like she passed out or something.”

Or something.

The PA system gargles to life: “Evening, gentlemen. Or is it morning already? Anyways, we’ve got a breach in the Control Room. Lethal response protocol initiated.”

Chairs scrape back. They both turn to me.