"An automated emergency freeze order just locked down the primary target account," Zhea announced, her voice rising in sharp disbelief over the hum of the cooling fans.
Rafael stood motionless inside the glowing server room, his silver eyes fixed on the frozen progress bar glowing on the master console display.
The air around him felt suddenly heavy, charged with the sudden electrical tension of a trap snapping shut in the digital ether.
"Can you override the automated freeze using our admin privileges?" Rafael asked, his baritone voice cutting through the rising alarms with absolute calm.
"The freeze is anchored to a hardware-level kill switch inside the central bank vault," Zhea replied frantically from her remote terminal, her fingers flying across the keys. "Someone inside the
