She didn’t answer. Her fingers flew.

She clicked the alert.

Vale called back. “Report?”

Maya leaned back. Outside, the city was dark. Inside, Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.3 RU7 silently watched the fake domain controller, logging every lie the hacker typed, while the real network slept peacefully for the first time all week.

Maya Chen, the night security operator, stared at the wall of screens. Nothing moved. The global markets were closed, the traders were asleep, and the only sound was the low hum of cooling fans from a thousand servers.