Location: TavTech Headquarters, Central Tavara – Midnight
While the city slept beneath a dome of shimmering streetlights and whispering winds, TavTech HQ was very much alive.
Inside the building's restricted-access R&D level, shadows slithered across a polished floor as silent footsteps echoed faintly. The security cameras didn't blink. The motion detectors remained quiet. Whoever had infiltrated the building knew the system intimately—too intimately.
A dark figure moved through the maze of reinforced corridors, bypassing biometric locks and magnetic fields like they were nothing more than child's puzzles. Every movement was clean. Calculated. Precise.
In the sub-basement lab, where Damien stored confidential materials for Project Genesis and the Phoenix Initiative, a glass case hummed softly, cloaking its contents with temperature regulation and bio-encryption. The intruder stopped before it. For a moment, they didn't move.
Then, a small device was pulled from their belt. It beeped thrice before it began to interface with the case.
Thirty seconds. That's all they needed.
Above, in Damien's office, Elijah stood alone—alert.
The former intelligence analyst had been working late, reviewing reports Damien had requested on the sudden dip in TavTech shares—an artificial trend triggered by rumors Damien knew had been leaked. Someone was probing their weaknesses.
His phone buzzed.
[Alert: R&D – Biometric Bypass Detected]
Elijah's spine stiffened. "No. Not tonight."
He rushed to the panel on the wall, inputting a series of override codes Damien had privately authorized. The moment he gained visual access to the basement feed, his eyes narrowed.
The figure was cloaked in a high-density thermal suppressant suit. Invisible to the untrained eye—and almost untraceable.
But Elijah knew the pattern of the infiltration.
"Raven Protocol," he muttered.
He opened the emergency comm line. "Damien, it's me. We have a breach. R&D basement. Unauthorized access—using ghost tech."
Damien, now at home, responded instantly. "Seal the exits. Don't engage alone. I'm calling Kaito and Juno."
"Understood," Elijah said, already sprinting to the elevator.
Back in the sub-basement, the case gave a faint click. The lock released. The glass lifted an inch.
The intruder reached in and carefully extracted the black cube inside—a prototype housing the encrypted AI core for Project Phoenix. The brain of everything Damien had worked for over the past four years.
Then, the unexpected happened.
A child's voice echoed softly from behind.
"You're not supposed to be here."
The figure froze.
From a concealed maintenance tunnel, a small girl stood, holding a flashlight—and a camera. Ava.
The flashlight beam struck the thief's visor. For a fraction of a second, their face was visible.
Then—
Bang!
A smoke charge exploded, filling the room in a thick haze.
By the time Elijah arrived, the room was empty. The cube was gone.
And Ava—now recovered safely by Juno—had fainted, the flashlight still clutched in her hand… and her camera blinking.
"Damien," Elijah said through gritted teeth, "we were compromised from inside."