Late-night glow from security consoles bathes the server vault in eerie turquoise. Elara and Lucien shoulder-deep in code, crouch before a spiraling holo‑log of system events. The room hums with suppressed panic.
“Look at this," Lucien murmurs, tracing a loop in the audit trail. “Root access was granted at 02:17—but the credential never existed."
Elara's fingers fly over the holo‑keyboard. “It's a backdoor," she says, eyes narrowing. “Helix's obfuscation routine—polymorphic, hidden in layers of sanitized logs."
Lucien's jaw clenches. “That's…custom work. Someone inside Titan." He leans closer, voice hushed. “I trust you to find it."
Her chest tightens at his gaze. *Trust: the system can't quantify this.* She glances at the implant's overlay:
> **Tension: high**
> **Trust: 60%**
