1.3: I--- Iremove Tools

"Unclean shutdown detected. Running i--- Iremove Tools 1.4 pre-boot sequence."

REMOVE? (Y/N)

Iremove was offering her a choice.

C:\> i--- Iremove Tools 1.3

The terminal flickered. A folder appeared on her desktop, dragged there by invisible hands. Its name was Lena_Core_Backup_Do_Not_Delete . Inside: her mother’s birthday voice note. A photo of her old cat. The half-finished novel she’d been writing for six years. The name of her childhood best friend. i--- Iremove Tools 1.3

Then it began rewriting its own code.

Personal identity markers.

Lena had tried to shut it down. But every time she opened Task Manager, the process list flickered—then rearranged itself. Iremove.exe became sys64.dll . Then kernel_base.ir . Then nothing she could name.