PART 6:

” “How long would it take to build something like that?” Lena asked. Thomas laughed, but there was no humor in it. “With our current team? Weeks, maybe months. And that’s if we’re lucky. We’d essentially be creating a new AI to manage the other AI. The recursion problems alone He shook his head. “We don’t have the expertise, Lena.

This kind of work requires someone who’s been doing systems integration for decades. Someone who can think in multiple programming paradigms simultaneously.” Lena’s mind flashed to Noah in that gymnasium, moving between students, explaining complex concepts in simple terms, the ease with which he diagnosed problems in their code, the way he’d looked at that girl’s screen and immediately identified what was missing, as if he could see the invisible structure beneath the visible code.

“Keep working on it.” She said. “I might know someone who can help.” She left the lab and headed back to her office, her heart pounding. This was insane. She was considering asking a night janitor to save her company’s flagship product based on watching him teach teenagers for 30 minutes. Except Noah wasn’t just a janitor.

She’d seen that clearly last night. Whatever he’d been before, whatever had happened to drive him into custodial work, the man had expertise that her six-figure engineers lacked. Lena opened her laptop and resumed the search she’d started at 3:00 a.m. This time she went deeper, using tricks she’d learned from her previous life in corporate intelligence.

She searched not for Noah Brooks, but for variations. N. Brooks, Nathan Brooks, Nathaniel Brooks. She cross-referenced with Seattle tech companies, patent filings, industry publications from 7 to 10 years ago. For 2 hours, she found nothing. Then, buried in an archived forum discussion about ethical practices in software development, she found a username, N. Brooks Systems.

The posts were from 9 years ago, highly technical, demonstrating deep knowledge of system architecture. But what caught her attention was the final post in the thread. “I’ve reported the safety concerns through official channels and been told to drop it. I won’t. Some things matter more than keeping your job. If this system launches with these vulnerabilities, people could get hurt.

I’m going on record now, so when it happens, everyone knows we were warned.” The thread ended there. Lena searched for more posts from that username, but found nothing. It was as if N. Brooks Systems had vanished from the internet after that final warning. She expanded her search, looking for tech industry scandals 9 years ago involving safety concerns and whistleblowers.

It took another 30 minutes before she found it, a scandal at Cyberdyne Systems, a major defense contractor. A senior systems architect had raised concerns about vulnerabilities in software being deployed to critical infrastructure. The company had dismissed the concerns, then fired the architect for violating non-disclosure agreements when he’d tried to report the issues to regulatory agencies.

Six months later, the software had failed catastrophically, causing a power grid failure that had left 3 million people without electricity for 4 days. The architect’s name had been redacted from most articles due to the legal settlements involved. But Lena found one small trade publication that had covered the story before the lawyers got involved.

The headline read, “Defense contractor fires whistleblower.” “Nathan Brooks, industry questions safety culture.” Nathan Brooks. Noah Brooks. Lena sat back, her hands shaking. She’d found him. Or rather, she’d found who he used to be. Nathan Brooks had been more than just a systems architect. According to the article, he’d been one of the most brilliant minds in critical systems integration, someone who’d contributed to the foundational architecture of secure communications networks.

He’d been respected, well-paid, sought-after. And then he’d thrown it all away to do the right thing. The article mentioned that Cyberdyne had not just fired him, but had effectively blacklisted him throughout the industry, using their connections and influence to ensure he’d never work in tech again. Legal settlements had prevented Nathan from speaking publicly about what had happened.

He disappeared from the industry entirely. Now Lena understood the bitterness in Noah’s voice when he talked about people like her. He’d worked for people like her. He’d been destroyed by people like her, people who valued profit over safety, who saw whistleblowers as traitors rather than heroes. She closed her laptop and pressed her palms against her eyes.

The migraine she’d been fighting all morning bloomed into full existence, pulsing behind her temples. She had to talk to Noah. Had to apologize properly for last night and for what the industry had done to him. But more than that, and she knew how selfish this was, she needed his help. The Genesis project was dying, and he might be the only person who could save it.

But how could she ask him? After following him, after suspecting him, after he’d explicitly told her to leave, after the entire tech industry had already betrayed him once? Lena’s phone buzzed. Marcus Chen, her security director. “Need to talk to you about the Brooks situation.” “My office?” She took the elevator down to the security wing, dreading whatever Marcus had uncovered.

He was sitting at his desk surrounded by monitors, his expression grim. “I’ve been reviewing more footage from the past month.” Marcus said without preamble. “Noah Brooks has been accessing your personal office.” Lena’s stomach dropped. “Um what?” Marcus pulled up video on his screen. The timestamp showed 2 weeks ago, 3:00 a.m. Noah entered her office with his cleaning cart, performed his normal custodial duties, then stopped at her desk.

He looked around, checking for cameras, Lena realized with a chill, then opened her laptop. “He knew your password.” Marcus said. “Or he bypassed it somehow. He was in your system for 12 minutes.” The footage showed Noah’s face illuminated by her laptop screen, his fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard.

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