One new notification.
Barry's hand trembled slightly as he clicked it.
Access log entry. Timestamp: 11:47 PM, previous night. IP address traced to Central City University network.
Credentials entered successfully. Username: [email protected]. Password captured and stored.
Clifford DeVoe had taken the bait.
Barry sat in his car, staring at the screen, barely breathing. His enhanced mind processed the implications at lightning speed. He had full access to DeVoe's university email account.
That email was almost certainly connected to cloud storage, personal accounts, everything.
Years of research. Experimental data. The intellectual foundation for the Thinking Cap that would eventually make DeVoe one of the most dangerous meta-humans in Central City.
All of it was now Barry's.
He opened a new tab and navigated to the CCU email portal, entering DeVoe's captured credentials. The login screen accepted them without question, redirecting him to DeVoe's inbox.
847 unread emails. Most of it academic spam and administrative notices. But buried in there would be the real treasure.
Correspondence with other researchers. Links to shared documents. Calendar invitations that would reveal DeVoe's schedule and movements.
Barry's fingers flew across the keyboard. He couldn't download everything from a car in a parking garage using his phone's hotspot. Too slow. Too risky. He needed to be home with his secured network and proper bandwidth.
But he could scout. Get the lay of the land. Identify the high-value targets.
He opened DeVoe's sent folder, scanning subject lines. Most were replies to students or administrative emails. Nothing interesting. Barry switched to the calendar application.
DeVoe's schedule loaded. Teaching hours. Office hours. Faculty meetings. All standard academic obligations.
Then Barry saw something that made his blood run cold.
Calendar event. Two weeks from today. 2:00 PM. "Meeting with Dr. Harrison Wells, STAR Labs Recruitment."
Barry stared at that entry, his enhanced mind racing. STAR Labs was recruiting DeVoe. They wanted to collaborate on neural enhancement research. This was earlier than the TV timeline. Way earlier. In the show, DeVoe hadn't connected with STAR Labs until much later, after years of independent work.
This timeline was different. Accelerated. DeVoe's research was progressing faster than it should be.
If STAR Labs got involved, they'd pour resources into his work. Funding. Equipment. Other brilliant minds to collaborate with. DeVoe would complete the Thinking Cap years ahead of schedule. Maybe even before the particle accelerator explosion.
That couldn't happen. Barry needed time. Years to prepare. To build wealth and skills and his own research base. If DeVoe became superhuman too early, it would destabilize everything.
Barry's fingers moved without conscious thought. He clicked into the calendar event, opening the full details. Invitation sent by Dr. Wells's assistant. Accepted by DeVoe three days ago. Location: STAR Labs, Conference Room B.
Barry deleted the event.
Then he opened DeVoe's email, searching for the original invitation. Found it. A polite message from STAR Labs expressing interest in DeVoe's neural enhancement research and requesting a meeting to discuss potential collaboration opportunities.
Barry deleted that too.
Then he composed a new email using DeVoe's account:
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* RE: Collaboration Opportunity
Dr. Wells,
Thank you for your interest in my research. Unfortunately, I must decline at this time. I'm committed to several other projects and don't have the bandwidth to take on new collaborations in the foreseeable future.
I appreciate you thinking of me and wish you the best with your work at STAR Labs.
Best regards,
Clifford DeVoe
Barry read it three times, checking the tone. Professional. Polite. Firm but not rude. Exactly the kind of email an overworked professor would send when turning down an opportunity.
He clicked send.
The email vanished into the digital void, sent from DeVoe's account with no trace that Barry had been the one to write it. As far as anyone would know, Clifford DeVoe had simply declined STAR Labs' offer.
Barry deleted the sent email from DeVoe's sent folder. Cleared the trash. Removed every trace that the correspondence had ever existed.
Done. STAR Labs would never follow up. DeVoe would never know they'd reached out. The collaboration that could have accelerated his research by years had been prevented before it even began.
Barry closed the laptop and sat back in his driver's seat, heart pounding. What he'd just done went beyond simple data theft. He'd actively altered the timeline. Changed the course of events. Prevented a connection that might have led to earlier meta-human threats.
Was that good or bad?
His mind couldn't calculate the full implications. Too many variables. Too many unknowns.
But it felt necessary. And right now, that would have to be enough.
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