The fluorescent lights of the NSP (Network Security Protocol) monitoring hub flickered once—a sign Ellie had learned to dread. She was the nightshift lead at Node-7, a sprawling data necropolis responsible for routing civilian traffic through the old continental grid.
Then the lights died. The emergency sirens choked into silence. And in the dark, the only glow came from a single monitor that should have been disconnected: her old mentor’s face, frozen in a decades-old security badge photo, with new text beneath: security breach nsp
> Look behind you.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
> System breach complete. Welcome to the other side. The fluorescent lights of the NSP (Network Security
It was a birth.