"Minor pressure adjustments," Elias lied. "You know how the engineers are. Perfectionists."
The status changed to Delivered . He deleted the draft, wiped the cache, and stood up, his legs feeling like lead. He walked out of the building, past the security desk with a casual nod to Sarah, and stepped into the cool night air.
"Well," Sarah sighed, pushing off the desk. "Don't work too hard. The building’s on lockdown in ten minutes." As soon as her footsteps faded, Elias hit .
The fluorescent lights of the server room hummed at a frequency that usually gave Elias a headache, but tonight, the adrenaline drowned it out. He stared at the terminal, his cursor blinking like a heartbeat.