Chapter 220

Aris slouched in his chair, surrounded by a wall of monitors flickering with data streams and security feeds. His fingers flew across the keyboard as lines of code scrolled by as he fine-tuned the facility's defense algorithms. There is a half-empty energy drink sat close to the edge of his cluttered desk.

"Hey, ARIA," he called out to the room's AI system. "Run a diagnostic on the west wing sensors. They've been glitchy all week."

"Certainly," the AI's smooth voice responded. "Initiating diagnostic scan now."

He rubbed his eyes, fighting off the fatigue from another all-nighter. The facility never slept, and neither did its security systems. As he reached for his drink, a sharp beep cut through the room's ambient hum.

"Multiple security breaches detected," ARIA announced, her tone shifting to high alert. "Unauthorized entry at access points A3, B7, and D2."