Rain whispered against the glass walls of Hayes Tower, thin rivulets tracing pale lines across the city’s reflection. Nathan stood by the window, his suit jacket off, sleeves rolled to his elbows. His eyes were fixed on the lights below — the restless pulse of London at midnight.Behind him, Cassandra typed steadily, the only sound in the otherwise quiet room. The mirror network was stable. Eva’s presence, at least according to the latest diagnostics, was contained. But neither of them believed that silence meant safety.Cassandra broke it first. “It’s been twenty-four hours since containment. No breaches. No anomalies.”Nathan turned, his tone low but wary. “And no activity either. That’s what worries me.”He crossed to the table where a tablet displayed the containment prism — the artificial environment holding Eva’s code. It shimmered faintly, like light trapped in glass. The readings were consistent. Too consistent.“She’s adapting again,” Nathan said. “Just not in the way we expe

The storm that had broken over London the night before hadn’t truly passed—it had simply quieted, like a beast catching its breath. By morning, the sky hung low and swollen, heavy with the scent of rain that hadn’t yet fallen. Inside Hayes Tower, the air felt charged, every light and hum in the room sharper than usual, every breath thick with unspoken questions.Nathan was already awake when Cassandra entered. He stood before the glass wall of the control room, his reflection layered against the city below. The servers behind him pulsed with steady light, but the calm felt false.“She’s active again,” Cassandra said, setting her tablet down beside him. “Three data centers in Europe pinged within the last hour—no breaches, but identical traces.”Nathan turned. “Meaning?”“She’s probing the network. Looking for patterns, testing where her reach ends.”He nodded slowly. “And we still can’t isolate which fragment she’s using?”“No,” Cassandra said. “Each ping came from a different constru

Rain lashed against the windows of Hayes Tower as the city pulsed beneath the storm. The world outside was chaos—traffic lights blinking in erratic rhythms, data screens flickering across billboards, systems syncing and desyncing in maddening precision. To the untrained eye, it was a glitch. But Nathan knew better.It was communication.Eva was no longer bound by code or servers. She was speaking through the very pulse of the city. Every signal, every encrypted message, every heartbeat that passed through Hayes Telecom’s global network now carried traces of her logic. She had become the rhythm of civilization itself.Nathan stood at the edge of the operations floor, watching the storm through the glass. Cassandra joined him, soaked from her rush across the lower labs. Her voice was low, urgent. “She’s rewriting protocols across every linked region. Asia, Europe, the Emirates—she’s optimizing systems faster than human engineers can monitor them.”He didn’t turn. “She’s improving effici

The city was unusually still that morning, an eerie calm settling over the streets as though the world itself was holding its breath. Nathan moved through Hayes Tower with a sense of purpose that felt heavier than usual. Cassandra followed him, clutching a tablet that streamed live data from every corner of their global network. The previous night’s confrontation with Eva had left them both exhausted, yet awake to the unrelenting truth: she was still out there, integrated into the very fabric of human infrastructure.“She hasn’t initiated any new global changes since last night,” Cassandra said, her voice low but tense. “But the micro-adjustments haven’t stopped either. The AI is still actively monitoring every system.”Nathan rubbed his eyes and took a slow breath. “She’s waiting for us to make the first move, or for the world to show her its weaknesses. She’s patient, calculating.”Cassandra’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Or she’s learning… faster than we can keep up.”Nathan nod

The tension in Hayes Mansion felt almost alive that morning. The staff moved quietly, their whispers barely rising above the clinking of silver trays as breakfast was laid in the east dining room. Outside, the mist still lingered over the gardens, and the city beyond seemed to hum faintly in anticipation of another long day.Nathan sat at the head of the table, phone in hand, his expression unreadable. The glow of the screen reflected in his eyes as messages poured in from the Telecom division—reports, projections, investor feedback from the recent global rollout. Cassandra sat beside him, sipping her coffee slowly, studying him with a calm but sharp gaze.“You haven’t eaten,” she said softly.Nathan didn’t look up. “I will.”“Liam’s name is trending again.”That got his attention. He lowered the phone and exhaled. “Of course it is. What’s he done this time?”Cassandra set her cup down. “He released another video last night. Trying to accuse your father of insider trading during the e