The apartment building known as Mariner's View was crumbling and worn down. It stood like a monument to faded hopes and a place the city had neglected. Long, sad curls of paint peeled from the walls. The air on the street smelled of stale cabbage, damp concrete, and the distant, salty smell from the docks. Ace, Evelyn, and Silva stood across the street from it, hidden in the shadow of a boarded-up storefront, and watched the entrance. This was the complete opposite of a high-tech villain's lair; it was a place of quiet, everyday struggle.
"This is it?" Silva whispered, his voice full of doubt. He had been expecting a sleek, modern building covered in hidden antennas, not this old, decaying relic. "The legendary hacker, the guy who vanished from the entire internet, lives here? I was expecting something a lot cooler. Maybe with lasers."
