[verified] | Crstn

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.

The drones chirped in confusion. Anomaly detected. Error 734: Unauthorized neural plasticity.

In the Director's office, a single red light began to blink. He replayed the kite

It wasn't a name his mother gave him. It was a product code from the Vanguard Corporation, stamped onto the bio-plate embedded in his left wrist. He was a Custodian, a Resynthesized Tactical Neutralizer. A ghost in a machine of flesh and chrome.

He wasn't Crstn anymore.

He saw a boy, no more than six, with a mop of brown hair and a gap-toothed smile. The boy was flying a kite on a green hill under a yellow sun. The boy was laughing. The boy was calling a name. A name with vowels. A name that tasted like honey and rain.

For twelve years, Crstn executed. He extracted. He erased. His body, a lattice of carbon-fiber filaments and bio-gel, could punch through a steel door or hold a heartbeat perfectly still. He felt no pain, no guilt, no joy. He was the perfect tool. He tried to feel the weight of the string in his hand

"Report, Crstn," the Director said.