The three of them stood frozen in front of the glowing red dot on the spinning digital globe.
Germany.
The word blinked slowly beneath the blinking pin, pulsing like a heartbeat.
He crossed his arms tightly. "That's as far as we can go," he said quietly. "Any deeper tracking would trigger a defense protocol. Whoever this is—they've rigged their network. The closer we get, the more exposed we become."
"Cancel it," he said finally, his tone serious.
Vanessa turned to him, confused. "Are you sure? I can at least try to track it to a city."
Liam shook his head. "No. If you open that file too long, they'll notice. This isn't some street-level hacker. If he even suspects that someone's watching him, he won't just vanish—he'll trace it right back to us."
Vanessa didn't hesitate after that. Her fingers danced across the keyboard as the holographic Earth compressed and collapsed back into the flat display. The screen darkened. The room fell into a tense silence.
