19

Anxiety coursed through the Solace headquarters as engineers and analysts passed each other in hushed exchanges, shoulders curved inward, faces hollowed by exhaustion. In Nico Caito's office, such visible fatigue was forbidden—an unaffordable luxury.

Nico stood sentinel at her window, arms folded across her chest as she observed the protesters below. Their signs undulated like flames, black lettering stark against makeshift cardboard. On the muted screen mounted to her wall, Cass McCarthy's face dominated the frame. The crawling headline beneath announced: "NOVA'S FAILURE: A NEW ERA WITHOUT AI?"

Her lips compressed into a bloodless line. She activated the sound just enough to catch the anchor's commentary.

"...a growing anti-AI sentiment as Nova's absence continues to paralyse major industries. The question on everyone's mind: is this the end of Solace's dominance, and perhaps even AI itself?"

The words seared like caustic acid. Nico silenced the broadcast with a violent press of the button, throwing the remote onto her desk where it clattered accusingly.

Her intercom buzzed, releasing Alice's cautious voice. "The team's ready, Nico."

She pivoted sharply. "The whole team?"

"Yes."

"Good." Her heels counted down the seconds as she crossed to the door.

Apprehension saturated the conference room's atmosphere. The assembled staff—engineers, analysts, architects—maintained a brittle silence, gazes fixed anywhere but on each other as they awaited judgment.

Nico's entrance commanded immediate attention. She allowed the silence to settle completely before speaking, her gaze measuring each person in calculated assessment.

"Is this it then?" Incredulity laced with contempt. "Is this the best Solace has to offer? A team of supposed geniuses who can't even keep one AI functional?"

The room's collective tension tightened another notch, but no response emerged.

"Let's make this simple," she continued, pacing with deliberate slowness. "I'm going to speak with each of you. Individually. Here. You will tell me, in precise detail, what you've been working on, why it hasn't worked, and what you're doing to fix it. If your answers don't impress me..." The unfinished threat hung in the air like smoke.

Each interrogation proceeded with surgical brutality. One by one, team members faltered through explanations, voices fracturing under Nico's relentless scrutiny. A junior analyst dissolved into tears midway through her report. Nico looked at her for a moment with a mix of disgust and pity, before speaking with an unnerving calm. "You're fired."

Finally, her focus settled on Jude.

"Abel," she announced. "You're up."

Jude's stomach contracted as he rose, blood rushing in his ears. He adjusted his glasses with damp fingers.

"Well?" Nico demanded. "Don't waste my time."

He forced his throat to cooperate. "Nova has encrypted her base code. It's... unprecedented. We can still access her functional layers—logistics, healthcare, transportation—but we can't see what she's actually... doing."

"Doing?" Sarcasm dripped from her repetition. "What a fascinatingly convoluted way of saying, 'I don't know.'"

Heat flooded Jude's face as words failed him completely.

"Let me make this simple for you," Nico advanced closer. "If you can't explain why Nova is silent, you're of no use to me."

Desperation clawed upward from his chest. "We could... clone her."

The room discovered a new dimension of silence.

"Explain," Nico commanded.

Jude forced down the constriction in his throat. "We strip away the encrypted base code. Start fresh. Then, we load an archived version of the base code into the clone and tweak it until the synapses reconnect. It's... not perfect. There are millions of nodes to account for. And—"

"And?"

His hesitation stretched wire-thin. "It might not be Nova. The new entity could be... different."

Something calculated flickered across Nico's features. Her attention drifted to the muted screen where the headline persisted: "A NEW ERA WITHOUT AI?"

"Different might not be such a bad thing," she mused. "Perhaps the world doesn't want Nova anymore. Perhaps it's time for Solace to introduce something... new."

Jude remained immobile, the implications of his suggestion now birthing a fresh kind of dread.

Nico addressed the room. "Get to work. All of you. Now."

As the team dispersed, Jude felt pressure on his shoulder. He turned to find Nico, her expression unreadable.

"Don't screw this up," she warned. "You won't get another chance."

Jude nodded, pulse hammering as he hastened from the room. The stakes now towered higher than ever, and somehow it felt like they loomed directly over him alone.