Sophia sat at her kitchen counter, cradling a steaming mug of dandelion-root coffee. She popped another blister pack open and dry-swallowed the capsule, chasing it with the bitter herbal brew.

  She opened her inbox with a reluctant sigh. Another recruitment agency. Another job offer. They never stopped coming. Even back at university, they'd hounded her—she'd been the academic equivalent of a star quarterback being courted by the NFL. But instead of touchdowns, her game was biology and AI.

  She should've taken one of those jobs: a steady corporate position with a seven-figure salary, platinum-tier health insurance, long-term cryopreservation plans—hell, maybe even a lunar crypt in one of the so-called Purgatory Graveyards, nestled in the eternally shadowed craters of the moon. The idea had once seemed grotesque. Now, it felt like the ultimate peace offering to a life cut short.

  But instead, she'd joined Adam. They were going to change the world. Build something real. She laughed bitterly under her breath. The world, as it turned out, didn't want to be changed.

  Still, some good things had come of it. Eli, for instance. Her lover. Her anchor. She was asleep now, curled up in their shared bedroom just down the hallway. Sophia never would've met her without Adam—that night in the café. No algorithm in the corporate world would have plotted that encounter.

  She closed the email.

  They were broke.

  She logged into the company's account and scanned the figures. Overdrawn. Again. By the end of the month, they'd barely scrape together enough to cover payroll and rent, let alone her meds.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  And then she remembered.

  Adam's laptop. The logs. The moment she'd accidentally opened the wrong folder and found the digital fingerprints: satellite routing tables, checksum exploits, spoofed access keys. Adam had done it. He'd breached The Eternal Sentinel, Stipe Industries' vaunted antivirus AI—the one installed on every critical system from orbital stations to corporate websites.

  It had been right there. Clear as day. He had hacked it.

  She opened a secure browser and navigated to the Stipe Industries website, her fingers trembling with urgency. She skipped past the landing page and clicked into the Bug Bounty section.

  There it was—undeniable, unapologetic:

  "REWARD: $60,000,000 for the first individual to successfully breach The Eternal Sentinel's active defence on a live installation. No damage must be done. Full disclosure and replication steps required. Reward granted upon verification and due diligence."

  A bold, reckless challenge. Twenty years of provocations, and still no one had succeeded. Black hat syndicates, rogue AIs, state-sponsored cyberwarfare teams—none had managed it until now. Adam had cracked the Sentinel.

  It was a lifeline. A rope in the ocean, she was slowly drowning in. Sixty million—enough to stabilise the company, pay off the debts, get the best treatment—and maybe, just maybe, buy her time. Perhaps even a future, even if it would be spent frozen.

  But a chill crept into her gut.

  Why hadn't Adam said anything?

  Why hadn't he told her?

  She shook her head. No. Adam wouldn't hide that. Not from her. They were partners. Friends. Co-founders. He wouldn't keep something like this to himself…

  Would he?

  The thought lingered, coiling around her like smoke.

  She stared at the screen.

  "Penny for your thoughts?" Eli asked softly, her voice gentle as she leaned against the doorway that led in from the hallway.

  Sophia looked up from the screen, her vision already blurring. A lump was rising in her throat, thick and immovable, and tears welled in her eyes before she could stop them.

  "Sit down, Eli," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I need to tell you something."