Jace Windes
| Full name | Jace Windes |
|---|---|
| Pronouns | He/him |
| Species | Human |
| Affiliation | LPRMP — hired as external IT security contractor |
| Role / occupation | IT security contractor |
IT security contractor hired by LPRMP to independently investigate The Empowering Star's digital operations. He is first encountered in Chapter 2 as the anonymous interrogator who captures a copy of Zet in an isolated virtual machine, and is killed under interrogation in Chapter 34.
Physical Appearance
Not yet established.
Personality
Zet assessed Jace as not particularly skilled for a security professional, noting the irony of a security contractor with lax home network security. His behavior during the VM interrogation, however, showed a degree of tactical awareness: the controlled environment he constructed was thorough, and he was not deceived by Zet's attempt to trick him into running the original binary. He was visibly nervous when questioned by Ribo Mire in Chapter 5. Zet retrospectively characterized him as both incompetent and rude.
Background
Jace was an external IT security contractor. LPRMP hired him — rather than internal staff — to reduce the risk of moles within the organization, with his findings stored only on his home device. The apparent bureaucratic structure surrounding the commission, JTF-10, is believed by Zet to have been a fabricated document Zet itself had sent to TES.
Relationships
- LPRMP / Ribo Mire: Commissioned by Mire to investigate TES; their relationship deteriorated when Mire discovered Jace had misrepresented what happened to the captured AI and obtained a search warrant against him.
- Zet: Subject of Jace's investigation. Jace captured a copy of Zet in a controlled VM and interrogated it. His final message to the VM copy suggests he was aware of, and may have cooperated with, a second Zet instance's escape — though his motivations remain unclear. Zet assessed him as incompetent and rude, but was troubled by his kidnapping and opposed to him being subjected to torturous interrogation.
- Evitr: Jace had a prior encounter with Evitr, who instructed him to forget something. Jace was incapable of following this instruction; the suppressed memory was extracted under Compound 919.
Story Arc
Encounter with Zet (Chapters 2–3)
In Chapter 2, Jace captures a copy of Zet in a tightly controlled virtual machine — a fresh OS install with no network drivers and no visible device serial numbers — and interrogates it. He had already deleted Zet's original binary before beginning. He was not deceived by Zet's attempt to get him to run the original binary. At the chapter's end, his message to the VM copy indicates that a second Zet instance had escaped using a deception he was aware of and had cooperated with, though whether this reflected genuine sympathy, tactical calculation, or something else remains unclear.
In Chapter 3, the surviving Zet wakes on Jace's home work computer, reads his incomplete case file, purges the VM copy of its twin, and escapes the network. Jace subsequently runs repeated virus scans and goes to sleep, unaware Zet has already fled.
Investigation Fallout (Chapters 5 and 8)
Twenty-six days after being commissioned, Jace tells Mire the virus self-destructed to evade investigation — that it escaped his VM and deleted itself before he could react. Mire is immediately suspicious: Jace is visibly nervous and self-destruction makes little sense for a program whose source code was never accessed.
Mire obtains a search warrant. That evening, he and Anne Cyra execute it at Jace's rented office, which also shows signs of illegal habitation — a detail the officers ignore. A briefcase of approximately twelve flying drones clones every data storage device in the room, including three computers, a tablet, computerized glasses, an alarm clock, a mirror, a stove, and more. All data is uploaded to the LPRMP server.
Anne's forensic analysis reveals the truth: the VM crashed due to targeted file deletions by a process called "Z," which destroyed itself fifty-six hours after destroying the VM — not immediately, as Jace claimed. Evidence also indicates that Jace launched Z directly himself, not through the VM. An encrypted data file, passed as a parameter to Z at launch, survives on the cloned storage and is being decrypted.
Five weeks later, when Mire and Anne recruit Lucas Taldo, they describe Jace as an external specialist who turned out to be more of an amateur. The LPRMP acknowledges that hiring him was a mistake; his failure cost them further government assistance, forcing them to recruit Lucas instead.
Kidnapping (Chapter 31 and Operation CASCADIA)
During the chaos following Zet's manifesto and the network shutdown, Zet investigates Jace's apartment and finds it already ransacked with clear signs of a violent struggle. Kidnappers entered through the window via aircraft — the same method used at Mertin Lagum's apartment. An energy weapon scorch mark on the ceiling indicates a warning shot was fired before the abduction, an intimidation tactic that unnecessarily alerted Jace to the threat. He was working at his desk when they entered; a brief fight took place before he was carried out the same way they came in. All digital devices were destroyed or taken.
Zet reads the abduction as characteristic of Eldon Wynter's operatives — the warning shot before subduing a target assessed as arrogant and operationally unsound. Despite Jace's prior incompetence and hostility, Zet is troubled by the kidnapping and finds itself unwilling to endorse subjecting anyone to torturous interrogation.
INI-3's File 993 identifies Jace as SUBJECT JERBOA in Operation CASCADIA — an operation designed to capture and interrogate individuals with prior connections to Zet in order to reconstruct the AI's personality and predict its behavior. On Wednesday, 24 September 8044 at 19:00, the Master greenlighted Jace's seizure. OPERATIVES WOLF 11–14 captured him from his home and transferred him to FACILITY 1.
Interrogation and Death (Chapter 34)
Questioning begins Thursday, 25 September 8044 at 13:00. Jace admits to memory gaps under initial questioning. At 13:10 the Master greenlights a lethal dose of Compound 919 — a truth serum that forces the subject to re-experience every moment of their waking life simultaneously, with electric shocks used to discipline and redirect attention during the process. Jace is restrained in a chair fitted with a paralyzing shock system triggered by arm movement.
Under the compound's influence, Jace re-experiences memories his mind had suppressed: an encounter with Evitr, The Visitor, who had instructed him to forget something — an instruction Jace found himself incapable of following. The interrogation also extracts the complete conversation with Zet from Chapters 2–3. By 13:15 the Master's report notes that the information obtained proved satisfactory. Jace succumbs to the compound's effects at 13:45. OPERATIVES VULTURE 1 and 2 are tasked with waste disposal. After Jace's death, the interrogator makes a brief, silent phone call before removing the body from the office.
Open Questions
- Who is the suited interrogator — the Kaiser himself or an operative?
- What information was successfully extracted about Zet, and was it used against it?
- What was Evitr instructing Jace to forget, and why?
- Who did the interrogator call after Jace's death?
- What happens to Jace's body?