Her fingers had not touched the device after last night, and the laptop was neither switched off nor closed as the screen gently illuminated the half-open folder.
Resolute and still, her gaze was fixed on the deserted streets beyond the frame, and with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, it appeared as if she was an attempt to keep herself from splintering into chaotic pieces.
The words which reverberated across her mind were:
"He's… Azman's son, right?"
"We were all finished."
"It's been taken care of."
But it had not quite closed the shutters on her mind: She was still trapped, mentally and emotionally in some space.
The ominous blanket of clouds quietly muffled low and grey, enveloped the city whilst casting gloom much like the sky itself sheltered us from the crude term dubbed reality. Within the gray clouds, there was no glimpse of sunlight, marking the onset of mendacious day. While The mother had already long gone off to her second job, Layla found herself feeling detached with knowledge rendered inexplicable.
Invoking blindfolds across her eyes stung, but drove her to retrace her movements through previously visited folders. This time, a plethora of sticky notes warned about unforeseen files waiting to be opened through quiet whispers. Amber light invitingly captured the desk whilst perkily illuminating three other hidden files intersecting with her journey.
She clicked on the alluring first.
A captivating first.
No — Captivating first.
Marked only through "RAVEN-FW3X," the pure prototype diagram openly mesmerized her.
Firewall 3X?
The zoom function revealed the system's intricate details, almost as if it were from a sci-fi film: intricate layers of multifactor authentication mechanisms, elaborate defensive perimeters, a protocol for real-time self-replication with autoscaling… An entire ecosystem functioning within something as small as a box.
"Outsmarting all attackers, even me." Was the capition Azman left handwritten in the corner.
Her father had engineered something…sentient?
Another file awaited, so she clicked it: another video.
Static first accompanied by dots forming into a fake face. Then, similar to a magic trick revealing a man's head who had been faceless until now: The one from Family photographs, and most importantly, the one haunting her family photos.
For the first time, he spoke:
"This is for whoever finds it, If it is you Layla… Then I apologize. I promised your father it would never get to this. But if you are viewing this, then it means he is no longer with us. And Kamal… He already started using RAVEN."
His words weaved a tapestry of thick fog around layla
"Brace yourself, fulfilling the contract kamal…"
He halted, fixing his eyes directly to the camera.
"Do not entrust anyone. Not even myself. But that someone is essential to you. A girl named Serena. Part of the original unit. What Kamal did, she knows. Now, she's disappeared."
"We…" Layla was cut off as the screen went black.
Serena. Was she the key?
Layla sat with palms pressed flat against the desk, recalling a name that ignited searing pain deep within her psyche.
Her father's handwriting was etched on the final file containing a journal entry, "I don't know if she'll ever find this. But if she does, she'll need to be brave in ways I never taught her. RAVEN was meant to protect the truth. Not bury it. Kamal… he twisted that."
Thick shutters blanketed her vision as her head grew light.
"Her heart was like thunder," wind rushing through her ears.
A single knock at the door…
…Everything frozen in time as if for her, but the world continued on: lift, body, step, do three hard hits. Laptop in hand.
She was lighting a fuse ready to combust at the seams, vivo quarto uno, raw ferocity erupting within.
Gunmetal grey curtains alongside machinery, legs shaking with pent up tension beneath her fingertips.
"No more boxes, free the mind, follow revolt," metallic realization adorned every layer of her essence that accompanied her emotions.
Retrieving compilation marked USB, skipping contours of engraved graphite symbols alongside hooded material prepared.
"Never to return scarred through," embroidered essence along portal privy opened where limbs descended from pavements formed above and kissed earth back below.
Nomenclature scanned through static judgment, fingerprints could be masqueraded as papercuts beneath chiseled fingers edging through boreal indifference.
Retrieving sleeve alongside dados hogan ochre shield forgot… "Not identity, who you are," reminder triggered visceral response longing.
Accessing the vault endlessly awaited concealed with folds revered beneath wire.
Kissing existence marked blade, alongside libero encrypted frequency deceptively multihued obliterate layer essence.
Tables and pillows, call and quench every need dished intrusively. Instantly—mark undefined, free time, reliance. "Recall every adventure without fate chasing."
Ears ringing sharp portraits as if bolting shape from suffocating grip that embraced
pseudo clarity beyond threshold fading hints perfume scatter vision guiding suspend.