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Code:Walin

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episode 4: It’s Still Watching File #005: CODE // ECHO CHAMBER

Inaya's boots crunch over the broken floor.

Her flashlight cuts a narrow beam into darkness.

Wali (whispering to Yuna): "How much you wanna bet she has secret X-ray vision?"

Yuna (smiling): "No bet. She already sees right through all your lying."

Wali (clutching at his chest): "Wow. Betrayed by my own twin of chaos."

Inaya (deadpan): "Both of you. Shuts."

Wali and Yuna trailed down behind — quieter, but not quiet.

Wali (muttering): "Ten bucks say this place is haunted."

Yuna (whispering): "We're standing in a deserted biotech facility. Haunted is the best thing that can happen to us now."

Inaya (cold): "Speak again, and I'll leave you two here."

That silenced them.

The air within VITRA was colder than the air outside.

Still. Too still.

Down a hallway, peeled-off signs hung from rusty walls:

"AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY – PHASE 3 // ECHO"

Yuna (soft): "Phase Three? What did they do with Phase One and Two?"

Wali: "Probably blew. Or evolved."

Inaya remained silent. Her flashlight snapped to a steel door slightly ajar. Burnt patches licked the edge.

She stepped in.

INT. DATA CHAMBER – NIGHT

Shelves of shattered servers. Torn cables like scars. And in the center — a containment case, smashed open.

Inside: nothing.

Inaya ( snapping ): "Too neat. They didn't leave this. Someone came after."

She produced a portable scanner, swished it across the data node.

A weak pulse.

Wali (leaning in): "That… bad?"

Inaya: "That's encrypted internal memory. Still online. Means somebody reactivated it."

Yuna: "Uh. Shouldn't we, like, leave?"

Inaya: "We leave when I find out what 'Project Echo' was really about."

Click.

A light flickered above.

Then another.

One by one, the ceiling lights started flickering on — but dim, broken, like something half-awakening.

Wali: "Oh no. That's horror game lighting. I know that lighting."

Yuna (grabbing him): "Don't move. Maybe it can't see us."

Inaya: "It's not a 'what.' It's a who."

She pointed the scanner at the camera dome in the ceiling.

A red dot flashed.

Then followed them.

Inaya (whispering softly): "We're being watched."

Abruptly—a clang sounded from the distant hallway.

Yuna (eyes wide): "Was that—?"

Wali: "Nope. No. I refuse."

Inaya (tense): "Move. Now."

They fled out. Down rusty corridors, over a loading bay—

Then—

Wali skidded to a halt.

His foot came down on something tiny. He retrieved it: a black metal tag, inscribed with "NEUROKEY—ECHO //GOV"

He carefully pocketed it in his hoodie.

INT. INAYA'S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Inaya opened her laptop. Data scrolled too fast for anyone to follow.

Yuna (panting): "I still can't feel my legs."

Wali (easy, crashing onto the couch): "I vote you never do that again."

She read the label Wali had left for her. It opened a corrupted archive.

Hidden in: logs. Tests. Names.

Inaya (tense): "Project Echo was. a mapping of the brain. Replication of the neural."

Yuna: "I don't know what that's saying, but it sounds like something nobody should play with."

Wali (whispering): "Yeah. Because it worked."

Inaya faced him. Steely. Intense.

Inaya: "Why do you say that?"

Wali (shrugs): "The lab was deserted. But fueled. Something—or somebody—was still present. Watching. It didn't have the feel of being abandoned. It had the sense that we weren't meant to be there."

Silence fell.

Outside, across the street — the same red dot flashed on a distant rooftop.

INT. LIVING ROOM – LATER THAT NIGHT

Yuna (yawns): "I'm gonna pass out before I start seeing ghosts."

She ascended.

Inaya confronted Wali. "You should go too.".

Wali (unmovable): "Not until you sleep first."

Inaya: "I don't have time to sleep."

Wali (soft): "You do have limits, you know."

She remained silent.

She just kept decoding files. Wali worked stealthily behind her back — organizing notes, fixing corrupted logs, opening drives with methods no one ever taught him.

Inaya (not looking up): "You're better at this than you claim."

Wali (smiling weakly): "Shh. Don't ruin my reputation."

INT. LIVING ROOM – EARLY MORNING

Yuna crept down the stairs, scrubbing her eyes.

She stopped.

Wali lay sideways on the couch, one arm dangling over a bag of chips, three flash drives stuck to his hoodie like adhesive notes.

Inaya was still on the floor. Awake. Barely.

Laptop open. Files ablaze. Eyes red but with burning intensity.

Yuna (dryly): "You two are a mess."

Inaya (without looking up): "He's using my laptop bag as a pillow."

Yuna: "You didn't throw him out?"

Inaya (not looking up): "He would not leave."