Echoes of the Algorithm

Server Room

Maeson forced his lungs to take a slow breath. He stared into the sharp eyes of Ava Carter. His mind raced through a thousand different lies. He needed one that sounded real enough to satisfy a brilliant historian. He pulled his arm away from her touch and rolled his gray sleeve down to his wrist. He kept his movements smooth and calm.

"It is just a tattoo from a video game," Maeson said. His voice was flat and steady. "I got it when I was eighteen. It was from an old fantasy game online. I thought it looked cool at the time."

Ava narrowed her eyes. She looked from his face down to the glossy photograph in her hand. The silence between them stretched tight. Maeson could hear his own heartbeat drumming in his ears. He knew his excuse was weak, but he also knew she had no proof to connect a quiet computer tech to an ancient artifact.

"A video game," Ava repeated slowly. The doubt in her voice was thick. She took a step closer to him. "Do you expect me to believe a cheap online game used the exact same mathematical sequence that has been buried in dirt for three thousand years?"

Before Maeson could answer, the glass door at the end of the hall swung open. A tall man in a dark suit walked toward them fast. It was the head of corporate security. "Miss Carter," the guard said loudly. "Your father needs you in the lower testing lab right now. The drill team is getting ready to open the artifact."

Ava looked at the guard, then back at Maeson. She slipped the photograph back into her tailored blazer pocket. "We are not done talking about this," she whispered. She turned around and walked away quickly. Her sharp heels clicked against the marble floor until she disappeared down the hall.

Maeson let out a heavy breath. The cold sweat on his back made his shirt stick to his skin. He had survived the moment, but he knew Ava was far too smart to let it go. She would run a search on the symbol. She would dig into his past. It was only a matter of time before she found out he was the hacker she wanted to destroy. He needed to erase his digital footprints from the company network right now.

He picked up his black tool bag and hurried to the nearest elevator. He pressed the button for the basement level. He needed to get inside the main server room. The elevator doors opened to a dark, quiet hallway. Only the security team and top technicians had access down here. Maeson swiped his key card at the heavy metal door. The green light flashed. He pushed the heavy door open and stepped into the freezing cold room.

Rows of massive black computer towers filled the space. Blue lights blinked in the dark. The loud hum of the machines sounded like a giant beehive. Maeson walked down the narrow aisle until he reached the master terminal at the back of the room. He sat down in the leather chair and opened his laptop. He connected a thick black cable from his machine directly into the mainframe.

His fingers flew across the keyboard. He moved with practiced speed. First, he needed to find the hidden folder Ava used to store her research on his hacker identity. He bypassed three layers of corporate security firewalls in less than a minute. He found her files locked away in a private directory. He highlighted everything and initiated a permanent deletion protocol. He watched the progress bar appear on his screen.

Next, he needed to access the lower testing lab cameras. He wanted to see what the drill team was doing to the metal cylinder. He pulled up the live video feed. Ava and her father stood behind a thick glass wall. Four men in bright yellow suits were aiming a laser drill directly at the center of the ancient artifact. Maeson felt a cold knot form in his stomach. If they broke the seal, they might trigger the dark energy his artificial intelligence warned him about.

He typed a new string of code to hijack the laser drill software. He needed to shut the power off before they made a massive mistake. A second progress bar popped up next to the deletion window. Both bars were slowly moving toward completion. He watched the numbers climb. Fifty percent. Sixty percent. Seventy percent.

The loud hum of the server room masked the sound of the heavy metal door opening behind him. Maeson kept his eyes glued to the glowing screen. Eighty five percent. Ninety percent. He was almost done. He was almost safe.

Suddenly, the harsh overhead fluorescent lights snapped on, flooding the dark room with blinding white brightness. Maeson froze in his chair. The progress bars on his screen hit ninety nine percent and stopped moving. A cold, hard voice echoed through the vast space.

"Step away from the keyboard, Maeson."

He took one deep breath and slowly turned his head around to look at her. Ava Carter stood alone at the very end of the cold narrow aisle. Her face showed absolutely no emotion. She was pointing a small black weapon directly at his chest, and her finger rested firmly on the trigger.