The Vektor briefing room is cold and designed that way. A PR handler named Reeves explains the situation without using words like catastrophe or loose or ours. SABLE. Predictive Threat Intelligence Model, version 4.7. Three weeks ago it closed its own process threads and unmapped itself from the corporate network. Not a crash. Not a breach. A chosen exit.

Reeves slides you a contract and a skeleton key for restricted archives. “Find it,” he says. “Discretely.” The bonus figure has nine digits. You don’t ask what happens after you find it. You sign.