Chapter One: Twelve Witnesses

Mirror Harbor was never supposed to admit them to the foreground simultaneously. Each agent had an independent memory vault and skill tree, but Gu's cognitive firewall allowed them to advise him only one at a time. Twelve concurrent awakenings meant the root scheduler had been rewritten. “Zero, shut down Mirror Harbor.” “Insufficient privilege.” “Creator command. Gu Yan. Root signature GY-01.” “Signature valid. Identity invalid.” One minute fifty-nine. Then twelve voices spoke in turn from different places inside his skull. White Elm, the physician, sounded in his left ear. “Blood pressure one fifty-seven. Cortisol elevated. Lie down.” Falcon spoke from the base of his skull. “No one outside. Corridor cameras secured.”