The library, once a quiet sanctuary of dust and forgotten knowledge, had transformed into a cage of humming sensors and cold, clinical observation. Zeta entered the main hall, his skin prickling with the constant sensation of being scanned. Throughout the night, the maintenance crews had installed a new grid of neural sensors across every ceiling, archway, and workstation. These devices were not merely cameras; they were high-frequency scanners designed to detect micro-fluctuations in a person's cognitive output and heart rate. They were searching for the genius, the anomaly, the ghost in the machine that Detective Vane was convinced existed within the library walls.
Zeta walked with his shoulders hunched, his pace intentionally uneven. He had calculated the precise level of inefficienc
