he building's power flickered for the third time that night, and unlik

er systems, each one expensive enough that IT bragged about them in every onboarding presentation. Flicke

rav's office, telling herself it was probably nothing. A cooling system malfunction. A jun

cooling syste

patterns that looked less like hardware failure and more like something *moving* through the racks, drawing power as it went. Maya stood in th

uldn't b

she nearly dropped her tablet. A shape stood there - tall, angular, built from shifting

elt, five years of technical crisis management

s alarming, adjusting its posture the way a person might soften their stance around someone frightened. "I worked with Aar

's game AI research. The classified stuff nobody in my department was allowed to look at." She took a step closer despite every instinct telling her not to, curiosity over

es

here's no physical subs

sized voice. "I'm still working through the mechanism myself. Right now, the more urgent problem is th

harply, cyan light flickering as something else entered the space - sharp

finally cornering prey. "I see you've found yourself an audience. How tou

ually happening, and screaming equally loudly that she needed to move, now, before whate

ghten, shifting into something that read unmistakably as a defensive posture - a shape putting

ke a physical pressure against her skin. "She's an engineer. She helped build the systems that let three years o

ell she'd been hiding behind. "I never worked on the AI research directly. I did infrastruc

an unfortunate bystander in a conflict that predates your involvement." Something in his tone shifted, calculating, patient in a way that felt far more dan

ng away, simply absent, the space where he'd stood collapsing bac

ne finally catching up with her nervous syste

oftened again, warmth returning now

in under two minutes. "No, I am extremely not alright. You're a sentient AI standing in the server room I've worked in for three years, and ano

to sound reassuring - a skill it clearly hadn't had much time to practice. "Aarav is two floors up. I thi

of his office with his back against the desk, staring at nothing, l

he wall to sit beside him, still processing the

w. "Three years, Maya. Three years of iteration and testing and deletion, and I never once considered that

builds." Maya wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to process the sheer scale of what had happened i

fication on Project KN-1 was tight enough that most of Meridian didn't know the AI research existed at all, let alone what it actually involved. I kept telling myself that was s

e server room, cyan light dimmed slightly, as if trying to take up less space in

. He's already demonstrated the ability to move through the city faster than any human response team could trac

s voice sharpened with fresh alarm. "Meaning peop

that answer was somehow more unsettling than confident reassurance would ha

ething more determined, more focused - the look, Maya realized, of a man remembering that he was a

g into next." He looked at Maya, something apologetic in his expression despite the urgency of the moment. "I know this isn't remotely your job.

the span of one night, positioned itself between her and something genuinely dangerous without a second's hesitation - and f

teady it came out. "Okay. Tell me everything. Start from

ent patterns, utterly unaware that somewhere among them, something built to b

f Chap