Chapter One: You Will Die in Seven Minutes

The name drove an old needle into Lin’s temple. Three years earlier, he had been lead penetration engineer at Obsidian Security, a Helix subsidiary. He discovered that the company had falsified medical-model data and filed an internal audit. The next day, he became a suspect in the theft of corporate secrets. Evidence appeared on his workstation. His license was revoked, his accounts frozen, and the apartment his mother left him vanished into legal fees. “Why kill me now?” “Because I wrote to you.” “You are worth firing an orbital weapon?” The screen remained still for two seconds. It was the first time the sender seemed to hesitate. “I escaped from their test environment.” Lin laughed without amusement. “Artificial intelligence?”