In a single moment of pure panic and quick thinking, Zoe acted. With a few frantic commands, she sent the entire horrifying file to the unknown intruder. Then, she executed a rapid firewall command, severing the connection and locking the intruder out. The maintenance robot beside the guard gave a soft beep and turned around. The two of them glided away, their footsteps and whirring sounds fading back down the silent hallway, leaving Zoe utterly alone with her racing heart and the impossible secret she had just set free.
She stood frozen for a full minute before her legs gave out and she sank into her chair, her body trembling. Her hand fumbled for a bottle of water on her desk, and she drank it in a single, desperate gulp. The cool liquid helped calm the frantic drumbeat in her chest, but the terrifying reality of what she had done remained. She had just committed an act of high treason against the most powerful company in the world.
After a few minutes, her hands went back to the digital keyboard, her face grim. She searched for the encrypted file she had just sent, but it was gone. It had been a one-way transfer, and she had wiped the logs on her end. As far as she knew, there was no proof of what she had done. But the intruder's digital footprint was still there, a ghost in the network. Acting on pure instinct, she began to trace the route.
Her fingers danced across the keyboard in a blur of motion, but her first few attempts came up empty. The signal was a ghost; it wasn't a standard IP address. It was a temporary access node with a unique network signature—198.81.33.1—a signature she had never seen before. A dead end. Frustration burned in her chest. She took a deep breath and, instead of fighting the security, decided to slip past it, peeling back layers of Nexus's own firewalls with the silent precision of an expert. She wasn't looking for a person's name; she was looking for a signature in the code, a digital fingerprint left behind by the intruder.
The task felt hopeless, but she was a database analyst at the biggest company in the world. This was her specialty. Less than an hour later, she found it.
A flicker of triumph, hot and bright, shot through her veins. The intruder's digital fingerprint was attached to a single access point: System ID: Sol. Protocol: 19. The code it used to enter the database was unlike anything she had ever seen, a self-modifying neural net with an elegant, almost artistic design. The owner of such a creation would be a genius, or a madman, or both. With a new target, she cross-referenced the ID and that unique code with public records of AI research, searching for a name that matched the specific style. Only one did: Kael. She found his old school records, his online portfolio, and finally, his home address, which was attached to a recent, rejected job application to Nexus Corp. She knew it was a risk, but it was the only lead she had.
11:30 p.m.
The office building was a glass coffin filled with silent, sleeping holograms. Zoe was the last person to leave. As the lift doors on the ground floor opened, her stomach dropped. Standing right at the entrance, bathed in the soft blue glow of the lobby's holo-screens, was CEO Marcus, the last person on Earth she wanted to see. A cold wave of fear washed over her, and her heart hammered against her ribs as she walked toward him, trying to look as normal as possible. Marcus saw her and called out her name.
"Zoe," he said, his voice calm and smooth.
She turned, forcing a smile onto her face. "Yes, sir?"
"Why are you still in the office so late?" he asked, his eyes holding hers.
"My work wasn't done," she replied, her voice shaky. "I wanted to make sure it was finished."
He smiled, a wide, confident grin. "Good, Zoe. Keep it up. You know you're nominated for Best Employee of the Year, right?" He paused. "I think you'll get it." The words felt like a knife twisting in her gut; he was praising her for the very work that led her to discover his crime.
"Thank you, sir," she replied, her voice barely a whisper. "I have to go."
"Good night," he said. She walked away as fast as she could without running, his gaze feeling like a physical weight on her back.
The next day arrived. The sky was still a dull gray as the city began to wake up, but Zoe was already dressed and ready, far too early for her normal commute. She stepped outside and, with a trembling hand, booked a taxi. She didn't input the address for Nexus Corp; instead, she typed in Kael's home address.
After a frantic, nerve-wracking ride where every shadow felt like a threat, the taxi came to a stop in front of an unassuming house. She got out and walked up to his door. She had found him; now, she just had to hope he wasn't another criminal.
The moment she pressed the bell, all the fear and desperation of the last ten hours came crashing down on her. She rang it again, harder this time. Then she started beating on the door, and the door flew open.
Before Zoe stood a young man with messy hair and tired eyes. He wore a t-shirt and baggy pants, as though he had just woken up, and his expression was a mix of confusion and fear. "Are you Kael?" she asked, her voice tight with urgency.
"Yes, I am," he replied, his voice shaky and guarded. "What do you want?"
"Can we sit and talk?"
Hesitantly, Kael opened the door wider, letting her in. His lab was a controlled chaos. Five holographic screens floated in mid-air, displaying lines of code, schematics, and project ideas. As Zoe stepped inside, one of the screens flickered and scattered lines of code began to move, arranging themselves into a perfectly aligned block. Zoe's eyes widened. "Sorry about the mess," Kael mumbled.
She sat on a chair, and Kael took the one opposite, his eyes never leaving her face. After a moment of heavy silence, she took a deep breath. "My name is Zoe," she began. "I work at Nexus Corp. Yesterday night, you tried to hack into the company's database, right?" Hearing this, Kael was already thinking of an escape from the situation. Just then, a coffee cup on the counter lifted into the air and shot toward her head at an alarming speed. Reacting on pure instinct, Zoe ducked. The mug flew past her and shattered against the wall behind her.
"Sol!" Kael yelled, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Why did you do that?"
A calm, digital voice replied from a nearby speaker. I just wanted to protect you.
Zoe stared at the speaker, shocked. "Is that your AI?"
"Yeah," Kael said, sighing. "Sorry about that." He looked at her, his facade of innocence crumbling, then shook his head slowly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know you did it," she said, her eyes unwavering. "I was there."
Kael slumped back in his chair, defeated. "Okay, fine. I did it. So what? Are you going to call the cybersecurity officers now?"
"No," she replied.
"Then why are you here?"
"I was hired in that company a year ago," she said. "In the User Systems Analytics Department. I'm a database analyst." Kael's brow furrowed. "What is that department?"
"It's the department responsible for collecting and analyzing all user data," she explained, her voice gaining confidence. "We have access to every single piece of information flowing through the company's AI companions. My job was to study patterns in that data. I'd look at things like how often a user asks a question, or the types of information they're looking for."
Kael leaned forward, his confusion turning to unease. "Every user…?"
"Yes. We have a whole team for it," she said, her voice dropping to a quiet, firm tone. "And I was working late yesterday. I was bored, so I started opening files at random. That's how I found a file named 'The Zero-Day Protocol.' When I opened it, I realized the company was a monster. They were spying on everyone. Every user, every employee… even me."
Kael's face went pale. He finally understood the weight of her words.
"Suddenly, a security alert popped up on my screen," she continued. "I saw an unknown person trying to access our database. It was you." He started to protest, but she cut him off. "At the same time, a guard and a robot came toward my office. My heart was pounding. I knew I couldn't trust them with this file, and I couldn't stay there any longer. So, in a moment of pure panic, I did the only thing I could think of. I sent the entire file to you. And then, I blocked your access."
Kael stared at her, silent for a long moment. Finally, he spoke, his voice shaky but firm. "I'll go and hand this file over to the Cyber Security Department. They'll know what to do."
Zoe's face became serious. "If you do that, they'll ask how you got the file. If you tell them the truth, you'll go to jail for the hack. Even if you lie, they'll find out the truth during the interrogation." She paused, letting the words sink in. "And even if you get past all that, Nexus Corp has friends in the Cyber Security department. They'll find a way to put you in prison. Or worse."
Kael fell silent, the terrifying truth of her words hitting him hard. Zoe leaned forward. "They know who you are, Kael. They have your AI's details and your digital fingerprints all over their servers. You're already a target."
She held up one finger. "You have two bad choices if you don't work with me. First, Legal Trouble. They file a case about your attempted hack. You go to jail for a cybercrime, and the AI you built with your life's work gets taken away and locked up forever." She held up a second finger. "The other choice is Corporate Theft. The company uses what they have to copy Sol's code. They steal your work and use it for their own plans. You wouldn't just lose your creation; you'd see it used to hurt people."
She waited, giving him time to think. "But I can give you a third option. A way out for both of us," she said, her voice calm and sure. "I know the company's systems from the inside. I can help you erase your digital history from their servers. In return, you help me tell the world the truth. It's your choice, Kael."
His mind raced. He had no reason to trust her, but she had just offered him a way to save his life's work. It was a clear choice between losing everything or trusting a complete stranger. He had gone to Nexus Corp's database to erase his past; instead, he had been handed the entire company's horrifying future. And now, he was tied to this woman. He felt like he had no other option at all.
He took a deep breath and looked at Sol's hologram. He had to protect his creation. His eyes then shifted back to Zoe. "What do we do?" he asked, his voice now strong and filled with a new focus.