The Hacker's Legacy

rching for ammunition. Wires, circuit boards, and data chips littered the floor. She was looking for something, anything else Luna might have hidden. Her movements were je

them since they were children, heard the noise and knocke

hair a mess. "They're lying," she said, her voice

rs, softened with pity. She reached out to touch Ava's arm, but Ava pull

, her voice a low whisper. "Making noise will

em," Ava lied, her jaw clen

ried to step into the apartment, but Ava blocked her way. "P

t, the words tearing at her throat. "They took her and they lied about it." She finally let the tears fall, hot and angry. Elara stepped

fficial report, to see the lie in writing. The system blocked her. 'Access Denied: Case Closed by Corporate Security Mandate.' The words were a digital wall, impersonal and absol

nted that. Luna was smart. She was a planner. If Ava was going to do this, she had to be smart too. A new resolve settled in her, co

luted clouds. "It's a beautiful prison, isn't it?" Luna had said. "They give us just enough comfort so we don't realize we're in a cage." Ava

space where Luna' s console used to hum. "Too bright for this place." Elara had lost her own son to a 'workplace accident' at an OmniCorp fa

ilding. A figure, cloaked in the shadows, was watching her window. An Enforcer. They weren't just closing the case. They were m

eet their work quota was being thrown out by OmniCorp private security. Ava peered out her window. A man was pleading, a woman was

involved. Don't draw attention. The Enforcer in the alley was still there. Helping them would be signing h

w the security officer raise a stun baton. Something inside her snapped. This was what OmniCorp did. It mad

rail and stooped, opened her own window and threw a pot of synthetic soil down at the officers. It shattered on the

rcer in the alley took a step forward, his attention now drawn to the disturbance. Thi

ague, being dragged away by hazmat-suited officials while she and Luna hid under a bed. They had survived by

apartment. There was no more time. Cursing under her breath, Ava grabbed the heaviest tool from Luna' s ki

ersion, to draw them away from Elara and the family. She ran down the hallway, towards the building'

ging everything into darkness. Alarms began to blare. It was chaos. In the confusion, she slipped out a back exit into the rain-slicked alley, her h