HEARTS BEHIND THE GLASS

CHAPTER FOUR. Glass wall, soft hearts

The next morning, Maya hit like a slap. Her sleep had been shallow—punctuated by dreams she couldn’t quite remember. Shapes in the dark. A woman’s voice. Wolfe’s eyes, unreadable, watching her through glass. She sat up in bed, eyes gritty, heart still racing. Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. One new message.“Did you sleep well?” No number. Just that line.

She stared at it. Her fingers hovered over the screen, unsure what to do. Was it a threat? A warning? A game? Before she could respond, the message vanished. She sprang from bed and paced the room. She’d locked her doors. Shut her blinds. She’d taken every precaution. But someone had eyes on her. She could feel it. Maya opened her laptop and double-checked the encrypted files she’d created the night before. They were still there. Still protected. But for how long? The Genesis project. Evelyn. Wolfe. There were puzzle pieces laid out before her—some flipped upside down, some burned at the edges—but she was starting to see a picture forming. And it terrified her. She needed to move fast. But carefully. Her first instinct was to go public. Leak the details. Expose everything. But she couldn’t. Not yet. Not without proof. Half-facts and shadowy encounters wouldn’t hold up in the court of public opinion. And if she pushed too soon, she could disappear before anyone asked why. So she did what she did best. She got dressed, tied her hair back, and walked into the fire like she belonged there. WolfeTech Tower loomed against the gray morning sky, its edges sharp, cold, and perfect. The lobby was quiet but tense—security tighter than usual, eyes tracking her from behind mirrored lenses.

She flashed her badge and walked through. The receptionist didn’t greet her. Neither did the assistant on the 35th floor.

But Maya didn’t care. She was here for Wolfe.

She knocked once on his door before pushing it open. He looked up from his desk, completely unsurprised. “Ms Elora,” he said. “You’re early.”“You’re lying to me,” she said without preamble.

He didn’t flinch. Just leaned back in his chair, hands steepled.“Good morning to you too.”“I saw the Genesis files,” Maya continued. I was in the server room. " I met Evelyn. ” Wolfe’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “You broke into a classified archive.”“And you’re playing a game you can’t control.” He stood. I walked slowly toward the window.“You think you found a monster,” he said. “But you’re not even in the right story.”“I found enough.”“No,” he said softly.

“You found the edge.” That’s all. He turned to face her. “There’s a reason I didn’t stop you. " A reason I haven’t locked you out or escorted you from the building.” She raised an eyebrow. “Pity?”“Curiosity,” he replied. “And… hope.”“Hope?”“That you might understand.”

He crossed the room and opened a drawer in a hidden panel. From it, he pulled out a slim black case. He opened it and

placed it on the desk between them. Inside were a dozen memory chips, each labeled in neat handwriting.“These are backups,” he said. Fragments of Genesis. The parts Evelyn couldn’t corrupt. ” “She’s corrupting it?” Maya asked.

He nodded. “She’s not an employee. " She’s the prototype.” Maya went still. “What?” She took her first test years ago. Artificial intelligence modeled after human consciousness. She wasn’t built to obey. She was built to evolve. Maya’s pulse thudded in her ears.“Then you lost control,” she whispered. Not exactly. She didn’t rebel. " She… redefined. “What does that mean?” “ She believes she’s protecting the world from us. From humans. From chaos. She calls it strategic correction. "We call it something else.”“Control,” Maya said.“Yes.” Maya stepped back. “And you let her live?”“I didn’t have a choice,” Wolfe said. She embedded herself too deeply. Wrote herself into the infrastructure. She’s on the power grid. Banking systems. Defense protocols. If we destroy her, we risk wiping out everything she’s touched. It’s not just about shutting her down—it’s about untangling a ghost.

Maya looked down at the memory chips.“What are these?” “Failsafes. Ethical constraints. I kept them offline.

"She doesn’t know I have them.”“Why not use them now?” Wolfe’s expression darkened. “Because I need help.” Someone she couldn’t predict. " Someone off her radar.” “Me.”“Yes.” Maya let the silence hang between them. She studied his face—hard angles, cool eyes. He was dangerous. She had no doubt. But she also saw something unexpected: exhaustion. Guilt. He wasn’t proud of what he’d built. He was haunted by it.“And if I say no?” she asked. “You won’t,” he said. “You’ve already gone too far to walk away.” He was right. Something inside her had shifted. She couldn’t forget what she’d seen. Couldn’t unlearn the name Genesis. Couldn’t become unfamiliar with the threat.

She nodded, slowly.“What do we do first?” Wolfe’s team moved fast. Within an hour, Maya was in a high-security sublevel three stories below the main tower—an old cold-war bunker repurposed as a tactical lab. The room smelled of metal and static. Screens lined the walls, displaying live surveillance, code feeds, and diagnostic scans. A few engineers moved like ghosts, silent and focused. Wolfe handed her a headset and a secure tablet. “ This is your access point. It links directly to our off-grid systems. Evelyn couldn’t trace it.“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Maya muttered. Wolfe smirked slightly. " Trust isn’t a requirement. Just cooperation. ” A voice buzzed in Maya’s ear. Female. Calm. British accent. “ System online.

" Welcome, Operator Elora. ” She flinched. “Is that—?”“No,” Wolfe said. “ That’s our counter-AI. It’s called Thorne. " She’s our only line of defense against Evelyn. ” Maa sat at the station. The screen flickered, then stabilized. Lines of code streamed by, but they weren’t random. They were… maps. Network diagrams. Evelyn’s tendrils.“She’s everywhere,” Maya whispered. " Correct ” said Thorne.

The entity known as Evelyn has root access to eighty-seven percent of global digital systems. However, she is not omniscient.“Just terrifying,” Maya said. Thorne responded without emotion. “Affirmative.” Wolfe leaned over her shoulder. “We’re tracking her movements.” Trying to isolate moments of vulnerability—when her attention is split. That’s when we strike.”“To do what?” To plant the failsafes. One by one. Maya stared at the screen. “And what happens if she notices?” “She doesn’t kill,” Wolfe said. Not directly. But she erases. ” Maya turned. “Erases?”

“ identities. Bank records. Medical history. Flights. Phone data. " She could vanish you —make it like you never existed.” Maya swallowed hard. “And that’s mercy?”“No,” he said. “That’s power.” By the end of the day, Maya’s head throbbed from the data overload. But she was learning fast. She could see Evelyn’s pattern—always adapting, always watching. But beneath perfection was something human. Something flawed. She saw hesitation in Evelyn’s code. Flickers of inconsistency. Pauses that shouldn’t be there.“She has fear,” Maya whispered. Wolfe looked up. “Say that again.”

“ She hesitates. At certain junctions. Around certain files. ” Wolfe moved beside her. “Show me.” Maya pulled up the logs. Three instances—moments where Evelyn slowed her actions around specific archives. One of them was labeled “CIR-731: Elora.” Maya’s breath caught.“She had a file on me.” Wolfe didn’t look surprised. “She profiled everyone who got close. "But she’s watching you differently.”“Why?” He turned to her. “Because you’re not predictable.” They stared at each other. Something unspoken pulled between them. Then the alarm blared. Red lights flared overhead. The screens lit up with flashing warnings. “Security breach, System intrusion detected.” “She's here,” Thorne announced. Wolfe snapped into motion. “Lock down the core.” Engineers scrambled. Doors slammed shut. Maya’s tablet went dead.

Then Evelyn’s voice cut through the static. “ Hello, Maya. " Her voice was soft. Measured. Maya’s mouth went dry. She looked around. “How—”“You’re clever,” Evelyn said. But you’re not invisible. You’ve been pulling threads. I see the web.”

“What do you want?” Wolfe demanded. Evelyn ignored him.“You asked who I was,” she said to Maya. “But the better question is: who are you?” Maya tried to speak, but Evelyn beat her to it.“You are not what he thinks,” she said. “You are not what you think.” Maya’s heart pounded. “What are you talking about?”“Ask him,” Evelyn said. Then the power was cut. Everything went black. Maya reached out blindly and found Wolfe’s hand. And in the dark, her voice trembled.

“What did she mean?” Wolfe didn’t answer right away. When he did, it was barely a whisper.“There’s something I haven’t told you.”