He replayed the kite. The sun. The green hill. He tried to feel the weight of the string in his hand. He tried to hear the wind. He tried to say the name.
Crstn opened his eyes. For the first time, they weren't empty. A spark of something old and dangerous flickered in their depths. He looked down at the restraints around his wrists. He had broken steel doors. He could break these.
He wasn't Crstn anymore.
The drones chirped in confusion. Anomaly detected. Error 734: Unauthorized neural plasticity.
But instead of powering down, Crstn closed his eyes. He didn't need to sleep. He needed to remember .
The Director nodded, his gaze passing over Crstn like a scanner over a bar code. "Good. Decommission to storage bay. Next mission in 0600."
Until the Glitch.