You quickly toggle the scanner to deep tissue mode, the machine emitting a high-pitched whine as it penetrates beneath standard neural layers. The holographic display reconstructs Tanaka's brainstem in pulsing crimson light, revealing a dense cluster of microfilaments wrapped around his hippocampus like barbed wire. Tiny corporate sigils flare to life along the filaments' length - the same logo from the black case.

'This isn't standard encryption,' you mutter, zooming in on the implant's structure. The filaments twitch unnaturally, reacting to your scan. Tanaka's body suddenly arches off the chair as the implant activates, his mouth opening in a silent scream. The memory feed cuts to a blinding white room where hundreds of identical Tanaka clones stand at attention, each receiving a black case from the crimson-lipped woman.

Your console erupts with system warnings as the implant begins broadcasting. Security shutters crash down over the lab's windows just as three black drones smash against the reinforced glass, their needle-like probes searching for entry points. The Tanaka in your chair begins speaking in a distorted chorus of voices: 'Project Homunculus assets are not to be extracted.'

The woman's face flickers across every screen in the lab, her razor-sharp smile now stretched unnaturally wide. 'Memory Archivist designation... recognized,' the voices chant through Tanaka's mouth as his skin starts bubbling where the filaments emerge. Your hand hovers over the emergency disconnect - but the scanner has locked onto something deeper, something buried behind the implant's firewall... a single memory file labeled 'Zero Protocol.'