Alaric sorted the last few files on his desk. The clock now pointed to 2:40 p.m an odd hour, not quite late but just enough to finally breathe after a long streak of piled-up work.
He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face. His eyes still carried the traces of yesterday's events, when the source code of his AI system was stolen.
Even though he had re-secured the system and traced potential backdoors, he knew one thing for sure: suspicion and unease don't just vanish overnight.
This wasn't just any code. It was his own AI system, built over years of persistence and failure. Shaped by wounds, countless experiments, and a resolve that had pushed him to the edge. At times, even brushing against madness.
He stared at the screen filled with lines of code against a dark background, though his mind was elsewhere. The questions from the night before kept returning, tugging at his thoughts.
"What exactly were they looking for?" he muttered to himself.
