The room smelled of damp concrete and old paper, with the faint metallic tang of the Veins seeping through cracks in the walls. A single flickering bulb cast long shadows across the scattered ledgers and cracked terminals.
tap… flick… hum…
Kara stood over the console, sleeves rolled, bruises dark beneath torn fabric. She eyed me like she was sizing up a potential threat, every twitch of her jaw and narrowing of her eyes catalogued. "This doesn't make sense. These nodes… they shouldn't align like this," she said, voice sharp.
I leaned against the opposite wall, arms crossed, letting the faint hum of the ventilation fill the silence. "Maybe you're just not seeing the pattern. Or maybe… you're meant to find it yourself."
shuffle… tap…
I slid a stack of encrypted files toward her. Among them, a ledger loop I had planted carefully indexed with false anomalies. Her eyes lit up at the first glance, a subtle glow of satisfaction that she had "decoded" what she thought was a secret.
"Here," I said casually, "start with these. Make sense of it. Tell me if anything stands out."
She didn't answer immediately, fingers dancing over the keys, tracing codes and cross-referencing data like a seasoned hunter. I watched every micro-movement a twitch in her shoulder, the slight hesitation before each keystroke. All useful. All mine to note.
hum… tap… click…
A faint smirk tugged at my lips. She believed she was uncovering a truth, but every line she traced was a breadcrumb I had placed. I let her chase it. Let her glow. Still liar, still useful.
Her eyes darted up for a moment, meeting mine, suspicion threading through the admiration. I held her gaze only briefly before looking away, letting her infer trust where none existed. Belief mattered more than truth. She would work harder, dig deeper, and all along I would know the limits of what she could see.
flick… hum… shuffle…
Minutes passed, punctuated by quiet taps of keys and the occasional soft sigh. Kara leaned back finally, confidence radiating in small, almost imperceptible movements. She believed she had found the key. And for now, she had.
I let the silence linger, letting her feel accomplishment, while I catalogued every reaction, every nuance. My game. My pieces. Still unaware they were following the path I had set.
tap… flick… hum…
She gathered the files, careful not to disturb the false ledger I had left, and retreated down the corridor. The faint echo of her boots marked her departure, fading into the hum of machines and the distant drip of water.
I remained in the shadows, a quiet smile playing across my face. The Veins watched, walls alive with faint vibration. Every hum, every flicker, every drip whispered the same thing: I was still in control. And this test? Only the beginning.