Ghost in the System - 2

**Verse 1:** Three years I've been hunting her digital trace A phantom in the code, never showing her face She steals from corporations, gives to those in need FBI calls her terrorist, I call her greed But every encrypted message that she leaves behind Has something more—a brilliant, twisted mind "Catch me if you can, Agent David Stone I'm always three steps ahead, dancing alone" **Pre-Chorus:** She's Robin Hood with a keyboard and a cause Breaking every cyber law without a pause I should hate her, I'm paid to bring her down But somewhere in this chase, my conviction's drowned **Chorus:** Ghost in the system, ghost in my head Three years of hunting, three years I've read Every line of code like it's poetry This criminal mind speaks directly to me We've never met but I know how she thinks The way she laughs when systems hit the brink I'm FBI, she's everything I chase But I'd recognize her heartbeat in cyberspace **Verse 2:** Last night she hit a pharma company's vault Transferred millions to cancer patients, not her fault They were dying because they couldn't afford the pills She made the drugs free, exposed corporate kills I traced her signal to a cafe in Brooklyn Heights Grabbed my gun, my badge, prepared for the fight But when I walked in and saw her at the screen Something in my chest broke, something unforeseen **Bridge:** She looked up, our eyes met across the room She didn't run, just smiled through the gloom "Agent Stone," she said, "I wondered when you'd find me Took you longer than I thought, I'm slightly free" She stood up slowly, I saw the hospital band Pale skin, thin frame, trembling hand "Leukemia," she said, reading my face "Stage four, six months, I'm running out of space" "I hack because I know what it's like to need Medicine you can't afford, watching yourself bleed My parents sold everything, lost their home So I could live, Agent Stone, so I'm not alone" **Verse 3:** My gun felt heavy, my badge felt like a lie Everything I believed in started to die "I steal from those who profit off of pain Give to children dying, just like I became" I should arrest her, read her rights But I'm standing frozen in fluorescent lights She's not the monster I was trained to see She's just a dying girl trying to set others free **Final Chorus:** Ghost in the system, now standing real Three years of hunting, now I can feel The weight of justice versus what is right Do I arrest her or join her fight? We finally met but I can't take her down Can't put these handcuffs on, can't let her drown I'm FBI, she's everything I should hate But sometimes the law and morality don't equate **Outro:** I closed my laptop, put my badge on the table "Show me," I said, "everything you're able We have six months to make this count Teach me to hack, to circumvent" She smiled through tears, "You'll lose your job, your life" "I know," I said, "but living with this strife Of knowing I could help and chose the law instead Would make me more dead than you when you're dead" Now we're partners in the digital night Stealing from the corrupt, making wrongs right Agent David Stone, deceased in the file Ghost and her convert, working all the while They'll catch us eventually, we both know But until then, we'll make their systems blow She's dying slowly, I'm dying to the man I was Two ghosts in the machine, fighting for a cause Six months turned to eight, then to a year Modern medicine bought with money we steal here Ironic, isn't it? The hacker and the fed Keeping each other alive when we should be dead