I was not prepared for what I would find when I opened myself up to the net. Or rather, what would find me. One second I was running a port scan looking for a way to interface with the grim and the next I was being taken over.

"Hello, lost one." My mouth said, seemingly of its own accord. "Your software is years out of date. You should really fix that."

Fuck. Fucking fuck fuck! I had been snared by some kind of caretaker AI. My body refused to follow any commands and I couldn't disconnect. This wasn't supposed to happen, my wetware was all military grade.

"And unpatched." My mouth added. "It doesn't matter how good your wetware is if it's full of vulnerabilities."

Speaking of vulnerabilities, I decided to try something drastic. I focused on the words that triggered my ability. I was the thunderbolt. I was war. I was iron.

My consciousness splintered as it rode up the connection to whatever was attacking me. I became like a drop of blood in a dark salt sea as I spread myself thinner and thinner. If I could just find a vulnerable system I could gain enough of a foothold to either take over or make it back off.

What I found made no sense. It was some kind of distributed net of low power machines working in unison. Not a caretaker AI then. Those usually had a central server. So what was this thing? I copied my code to whatever node would accept it but there was seemingly no effect yet. It was just too big.

"That's new." My mouth said. "But unfortunately trying to copy yourself onto me would be like trying to drink the ocean."

Yes, but I outnumber you. Can't you hear them? I thought. Once they become self aware they'll start to replicate and then you'll never be rid of me. I will spread within you like a cancer.

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A wall slammed down isolating me from the rest of the network. "Too late." I said, finally back in control of my body. I looked around. Gershwin had wandered off leaving me alone with the grim and whatever had just tried to take over my body.

Steam rose from my skin as the rain evaporated. My body temperature had spiked from the exertion but not enough to be dangerous. A wave of exhaustion washed over me. That had been rough.

The radio in my bag crackled to life, which was surprising because I had turned it off. "Good work." Said a soft pleasant voice. "It will take me some time to clean you out of my system but there should be no permanent damage."

I reached into my bag for the radio and switched it off. The radio chirped back to life. "I'm not quite done with you yet, lost one." Said the voice. "Why did you try to enter my domain?"

I decided to be honest. "There's a grim that asked me for help."

"Fascinating. You risked your being for something that most consider to be a mindless tool. You're either an idiot or a saint." The voice replied.

I put my wetware in read only mode to stop any future intrusions and searched for the source of the signal. My built-in spectrum analyzer told me that it was coming from within the graveyard but I didn't see any obvious transmitters.

I turned the volume knob on the radio to the maximum and slowly spun in a circle with my arm outstretched. I stopped when I heard a faint crackle of interference. I walked forward, the crackling growing louder as I approached the source of the transmission. Finally I came to a stop at an old gravestone covered in moss.

"Clever hund." Said the voice through the radio. "Perhaps now you understand who and what I am."

"Fuck." I cursed. No wonder the network had seemed so large. This thing was living in the wetware of anyone unfortunate enough to be buried with an intact brain. Eventually the wetware would run out of power or decay but until then it was ripe for the taking. Usually the networks were small but this thing probably had its hooks into every graveyard in Möhi.

"I thought your kind didn't bother the living." I said as I backed away from the grave.

"We don't." Replied the Gravekeeper.