Chapter Two: Victory Has Been Paid For

Jianxia tried copying them to an encrypted drive. At ninety-nine percent, an alert appeared: SOURCE FILE DOES NOT EXIST. She took a photograph. In the picture, the folder was empty. “So you really are still here.” Coach Xu’s voice came from behind her. Jianxia spun around. Xu stood in the doorway carrying two bowls of noodles, with none of last night’s joy on her face. “You know this program?” Xu set down a bowl. “I know that computer has always been strange. It came from a sports-research institute twelve years ago. When I founded the club, I had no money, so I brought it out of a salvage warehouse.” “It used my name.” “Software reads account information.” “It knew the score three days early.”