I headed down to Michael’s office early the next morning, the quiet corridors of the compound echoing softly under my boots. When I pushed the door open, the room was empty—his desk lamp was off, and his coffee mug sat clean beside the keyboard. He hadn't come in yet.
Walking around his setup, I pulled up the main swivel chair and settled in front of the wall of monitors. I wiggled the mouse, waking the screens to a cascade of code and system telemetry.
My fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard as I opened a fresh terminal window, targeting the Academy's central network.
Their firewall immediately slammed up against my ping—a massive, multi-layered security grid. It was significantly tighter and more aggressive than the mayor’s local servers had been, built to detect and burn out u
