My fingers fly across the haptic interface, slicing through firewalls like silk. On-screen, VanTech’s central server blinks open—finally. Years of planning, dead drops, ghost protocols, all leading to this moment. I’m about to leak the files that prove Damien sold our nation’s defense codes to foreign syndicates. Then, a notification flashes—encrypted, personal, tagged with a voice signature I shouldn’t recognize.

Mathew.

My breath snags. One night. That’s all it was. Rain-slick streets, a dimly lit bar, laughter that didn’t feel like a trap. He was kind. Real. And now his biometrics are flagged in a Level-9 secure project—NeuroLock. The same project I’ve been hunting.

A proximity alert screams. Boots echo in the ventilation shaft above. They’re here. I have seconds.\nI can purge the terminal and vanish—again.\nOr I can decrypt the full file on Mathew, risking exposure to learn what he knows.