Chapter 207

# Chapter 207 ## SERAPHINA The proposal sat on my secondary monitor, Kael's words glowing in the dim light of my private workstation. I'd read it three times now, each pass revealing new layers of careful reasoning—and carefully hidden fear. *"...recommend limited collaborative engagement with the Entity (proposed designation: Echo) to attempt recovery of isolated consciousness fragments from corrupted network sectors. Proposed safeguards include..."* Echo. He'd given it a name. Something about that made it more real. Less of an abstract threat, more of a... what? A person? A being? The terminology mattered more than I wanted to admit. I pulled up my own analysis, the one I'd been running since the conversation ended. Pattern recognition was my specialty—finding signal in noise, meaning in chaos. And the Entity's—Echo's—communication patterns were fascinating. "You're still here." I jerked around. Ramirez stood in my doorway, her expression unreadable in the low light. "Dr. Ramirez. I