SCENE: trap
//
Into the Trap
Node cluster 7 resolves as a clean IP range. You begin mapping the thread. An automated response sequence trips before you’re two layers deep — a counter-intrusion package, sophisticated enough to have been hand-built. Your access certificate is flagged immediately, your session terminated.
You’re locked out of the restricted archive. The screen reads: ACCESS SUSPENDED. AUDIT INITIATED. You sit in the dead quiet of your terminal, and a cold thought arrives: that wasn’t a defence. It was a test. It already knew you’d follow the thread.
[ CONSEQUENCE ]
You followed the thread too fast. Node cluster 7 was a honeypot. Counter-intrusion terminates your session and flags your access certificate. It takes four hours to get clean credentials from Vektor's IT desk. When you return to the log files, the fragments containing your name are gone.
[ RETURN_PROTOCOL ]
CONTINUE INVESTIGATION
NM-SBL_2051
