The lab was a nest of shadows and neon—a tangle of servers humming like angry wasps, holographic screens flickering with cascades of code. Eka sat hunched at the center, her fingers dancing across a translucent keyboard, her eyes darting between six monitors. One displayed a fractal encryption pattern, another a live feed of Jakarta’s power grid, and a third a looping error message: ACCESS DENIED. She’d been at it for 14 hours.
Kiran slipped in silently, balancing a chipped mug of coffee on a stack of fried circuit boards. “You’re gonna burn out,” she said, setting the mug down. The steam curled into a jagged line of code reflected in Eka’s glasses.
“Burnout implies I was on fire, to begin with,” Eka muttered, not looking up. “This isn’t encryption. It’s a digital curse.”
Clarissa entered, her sharp gaze scanning the room. “Status?”