Episode 6: The Question

He took a deep breath and looked at Sol's hologram.

He had to protect his creation.

His eyes then shifted back to Zoe.

“What do I have to do?” he asked, his voice now strong and filled with a new focus.

“You made the right decision,” Zoe said, a small smile of relief on her face. She stood up and took a step toward him. “The first thing you need to do is give me that file I sent you last night. Once I have it, I can tell you what…”

“Okay, give me the password,” Kael cut her off, his expression serious.

Zoe’s smile vanished. She froze for a second.

Her hands shot out, gripping Kael’s shoulders. She bent slightly, a strange mix of a smile and worry on her face.

“No,” she said softly. “I think you misunderstood. I’m talking about the file I sent you. The one with the company’s secrets.”

“I know,” Kael replied, his voice impatient. “That’s the one I’m talking about. It’s asking for a key to unlock it.”

Zoe's eyes widened. She stared at him, her body completely still.

Then her hands grabbed the neck of his t-shirt.

“That file has a password?”

Kael nodded, confused by her reaction. “Yeah. It was asking for a key. You know that, right? You’re the one who sent it to me.”

She immediately let go of his shirt. “Show me.”

Kael led her to his CORE. He opened the encrypted file, and a pop-up window appeared in the air between them.

ENTER PASSWORD/KEY

Zoe looked at the screen, a line of confusion on her brow. She was thinking, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

Kael asked again, his voice calm. “You don’t know about this?”

“No,” she said, her voice now a whisper. “I don’t have any idea about a password. It didn’t ask for one when I opened it.”

Kael’s brow furrowed. “Then how can we open it now?”

Zoe didn’t answer. She took a step back, her eyes wide, and let out a shaky breath. She just stared at the screen, the blinking cursor in the password field seeming to mock her.

The silence in the room was filled with their sudden, shared panic.

“I think… I think the password was added during the transfer,” Zoe finally said, her mind racing. “They must have programmed it like that. A final security measure to make sure the file was useless if it fell into the wrong hands.”

They stared at each other. They had the evidence, but it was locked in a box they couldn't open.

“You need to hack this,” she said, looking at Kael. “You need to crack this password.”

Kael let out a short, hollow laugh. “I tried. I was doing that right when you showed up.”

Zoe gave a small “Hoo,” the sound a mixture of surprise and slight embarrassment.

“Sol,” Kael commanded, “generate some new code. We’re back to work.”

A hologram screen beside the CORE lit up, and lines of code began to scroll endlessly. They tried so many different keys, but nothing worked. After what felt like hours, Kael slumped back in his chair.

“We tried everything. Nothing’s working.”

Zoe stood there for a moment, thinking. “Okay, I have an idea,” she said. “I’ll go to the office. I’ll try to find the password or a copy of this file in their database.”

“Until then, I’ll keep trying,” Kael replied.

Zoe nodded and left the house.

 

The air in the Nexus Corp office was cold and still. The building was so busy.

Zoe went straight to her desk and powered on her CORE. She touched a small device attached to the back of her ear.

“Get to work, Echo.”

A blue hologram screen appeared beside her CORE, showing her today’s work assignments.

“Take me to the list of files starting with ‘Z,’” she ordered her AI.

A large list appeared on her screen. As she scrolled through them, her AI asked a question.

What are you looking for, Zoe?

“Your job is done, Echo,” she said seriously. “Go offline.”

The hologram screen vanished.

She continued searching, a sense of quiet desperation building in her chest. The list of files was endless. After a long while, she reached the end.

Nothing.

Then, a new thought came to her. She would erase Kael’s digital fingerprints from the servers first.

But just as she was about to start, a robot glided silently to her desk.

“Miss Zoe, the CEO wants you in his office. Now.”

A wave of panic washed over her. Why did he call me? Did he find out?

She slowly walked to Marcus’s office and knocked on the glass door. It slid open. She entered the room, her heart pounding. Marcus was sitting in his chair, looking at her seriously.

“Sit, Zoe,” he said, pointing to the chair opposite his desk.

She sat down quietly.

“Did your work from last night get completed?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, her voice barely a whisper.

“You noticed anything different last night in our systems?” he asked, his eyes sharp and unblinking.

“No, sir,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Okay,” he said, his expression unchanged. He leaned forward, placing his hands flat on the table. “I’ll come straight to the point.”

“Do you know anything about The Zero-Day Protocol?”

Zoe's blood ran cold.

The silence in the room suddenly felt deafening. All she could hear was the frantic pounding of her own heart.

Her hands clenched in her lap. Her throat went dry.

She could only stare at Marcus, unable to form a single word.