m hit at

owing dashboards erupted into controlled chaos. Red alerts began cascading across the mas

once. Then again. Then four times in rapid succession. When Sophie slipped into the room and silently mouthed, "

. Screens showed critical systems blinking offline client access panels, intranet c

her heels striking the concrete as she

ad of network architecture. "It's not a full breach, but

narrowed. "Is

ell. We're

w stepping into a stor

k hoodie, laptop already open, eyes s

deep trace logs," he s

looked to Elena,

arms crossed, silently observing the strange calm that seemed to envelop him as everyone else spiraled. He didn't fu

uttered,

aned in.

on a legacy server route. A diagnostic protocol is buried under the o

w o

years. Ma

n cold. "My

ical sabotage. Someone knew how Roth's original

ou pat

by one. "Redirected the vulnerable pings, scrubbed the bad h

t in under t

d. "Didn't

e muttered "Holy shit" under their breath. A few engine

this time with something uns

ence. Genius. D

kind of backdoor archite

ts," he said vaguely. "Sometimes you know how to d

still for a

ged his laptop and stood. "I'll send

pplause, no explanation, jus

l," she whispered, "either that man is our compa

the path Liam had taken