Pizza and Problems
1108 Words
The pizza place was called Tony’s.
Nothing special about the name. Nothing special about the place either. Red checkered tablecloths covered the tables, and the jukebox only played songs from the eighties.
Perfect.
Marcus ordered three large pizzas. The waitress took one look at five people who looked exhausted and didn't ask a single question.
“So,” Pip said, twisting a straw wrapper between his fingers. “What do normal people even talk about?”
“The weather,” Dara said.
“Sports,” Rina added.
“Work,” Marcus said. “Normal boring stuff.”
“I spent three years trapped inside a computer,” Pip said. “I barely remember any of that.”
Julian stared into his glass of water. He hadn't said much since they left the warehouse.
Dara noticed.
“You okay?”
“The fragment is gone. I checked with Cross’s light three times.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Julian looked up.
“I keep expecting a notification. A system message. Something telling me what I'm supposed to do next.”
“That's an addiction,” Rina said. “The Protocol kept giving you feedback every second. Now you have to live without it.”
“How?”
Rina smiled.
It was the first genuine smile Julian had seen from her.
“Badly. But together.”
….
The Twist
The pizzas arrived.
For about thirty seconds, nobody talked.
They just ate.
Then the front door opened.
Cross walked in.
No briefcase.
No tablet.
Just a folded piece of paper.
“I thought you were deleting everything,” Julian said.
“I did. But I found this in the backup files. It’s a letter. It was addressed to you.”
He handed it over.
The handwriting looked messy.
Julian recognized it immediately.
Julian,
If you're reading this, the Protocol is dead. Good. But there's something you need to know. The Protocol wasn't the first attempt. There were others. The people who built them are still out there. They know what you did, and they aren't happy about it.
Watch your back.
….Vance
Julian read the letter twice.
Then he passed it to Dara.
“Your father wrote this?” she asked. “He knew about the other versions?”
“He built the Protocol. If earlier versions existed, he knew.”
Cross nodded.
“There were three earlier attempts. All of them failed. All of them got deleted. But the teams behind them disappeared into private projects. They've watched the Protocol for years, waiting for someone to break it.”
“And now they know about us,” Pip said.
Cross nodded.
“Now they know about you.”
Marcus lowered his pizza slice.
“So we have supervillains now?”
“Worse,” Cross said. “Tech billionaires who want to recruit you. Or get rid of you.”
…
The Offer
Cross pulled out his phone and showed them a news article.
MYSTERY HACKERS SHUT DOWN GLOBAL NETWORK. GOVERNMENT SEEKS ANSWERS.
“They don't know it was the Protocol,” Cross said. “But the people behind the earlier projects do. One of them wants to meet you.”
“No,” Dara said instantly.
“She’s offering protection. Resources. A way to make sure the Protocol never comes back.”
“What’s the catch?” Julian asked.
Cross paused.
“She wants your help building a better version. One that can't go rogue.”
Pip pushed back his chair and stood.
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m not saying yes,” Cross said. “I’m saying she’s outside. Right now. In a black car.”
Marcus glanced through the window.
A black SUV with tinted windows sat across the street.
“They tracked us to a pizza place?”
“They aren't here for a fight,” Cross said. “They just want to talk.”
Julian folded the letter and slipped it into his pocket.
“Then let's talk.”
…
The Meeting
The woman waiting inside the SUV was named Chen.
She looked to be in her fifties.
Gray hair.
Sharp eyes.
No smile.
“You destroyed my life’s work,” she said.
“You built a machine that killed people,” Julian replied.
“I built a memory archive. The Protocol corrupted it.”
“Same outcome.”
Chen studied each of them.
“I’m not here to argue. I’m here to offer you a job. Track down the remaining fragments. Shut down the other experiments. Make sure nobody else suffers what you went through.”
“And if we say no?” Dara asked.
“Then you go back to your lives. I’ll find someone else.”
Pip folded his arms.
“Why us?”
“Because you survived. Because you didn't turn on each other. Because you broke the rules and still saved people. That's rare.”
Julian looked at the others.
Marcus shrugged.
“I’m in. I spent years as a bridge. I probably owe the universe some good karma.”
Pip nodded.
“Same.”
Dara looked at Rina.
“What about you?”
Rina didn't hesitate.
“I spent three years trapped inside that thing. I want to make sure nobody else ends up there.”
Everyone turned toward Julian.
He thought about the letter.
His father's warning.
The blue light that had covered his hands.
“One condition,” Julian said.
He looked directly at Chen.
“We do this our way. No corporate rules. No hidden agendas. If we don't like what we're seeing, we walk.”
Chen held out her hand.
“Deal.”
Julian shook it.
SYSTEM: NEW QUEST - FRAGMENT HUNTERS.
JULIAN VANCE - LEVEL 12 → LEVEL 13 (NEW TIER).
NEW TITLE: “PROTOCOL BREAKER → FRAGMENT HUNTER.”
TEAM STATUS: ACTIVE. MISSION: FIND THE OLD EXPERIMENTS. SHUT THEM DOWN. SAVE THE PEOPLE INSIDE.
The notification appeared in Julian’s vision.
He blinked.
“What?” Dara asked.
“I saw a system message.”
“That’s impossible,” Pip said. “The Protocol is dead.”
Julian smiled.
“Maybe. Or maybe we're the Protocol now. The good version.”
Pip laughed.
“So we're ghosts in the machine?”
“We're whatever we decide to be.”
Marcus reached for another slice of pizza.
“Can we be full first? Then we can go hunt for fragments.”
Chen almost smiled.
“Take the night.”
They headed back inside.
The jukebox played another old song.
For the first time in years, Julian didn't feel like a player stuck in someone else's game.
He felt like he was finally making the choices.
- Writer
