00:00The whiskey soaks into the marble.
00:02Neither of us moves.
00:04That's not funny, I say.
00:07I'm not laughing.
00:09I search his face for the punchline.
00:11For the gotcha.
00:13But Ethan Cross just stands there with those storm-gray eyes,
00:17looking at me like I'm a puzzle he's already solved.
00:20You're serious.
00:22I'm always serious.
00:24He bends down, starts collecting the shards of glass with his bare hands.
00:28It's one of my many flaws.
00:31Stop.
00:32You'll cut yourself.
00:34I've survived worse.
00:36I kneel down next to him, ignoring the protest from my ankle.
00:40Our hands meet over a jagged piece of crystal.
00:44He doesn't pull away.
00:46Neither do I.
00:47Explain, I say.
00:49Now.
00:51He exhales.
00:53It's the first time I've seen him look anything other than perfectly composed.
00:57Six months ago, my team developed a predictive model.
01:01Behavioral analytics, biometrics, environmental factors.
01:06It was supposed to be for market forecasting.
01:08What stocks would move, what companies would fail.
01:12He drops the glass into a trash bin.
01:14Then it started predicting other things.
01:17Deaths.
01:18Accidents.
01:19Things it had no business knowing.
01:21And you believed it?
01:23I didn't have a choice.
01:24It was right.
01:26Every time.
01:27I stand up too fast.
01:29The room tilts.
01:30Easy.
01:31His hand finds my elbow.
01:33Warm.
01:34Steady.
01:35You're still bleeding.
01:36I'm fine.
01:38You're a terrible liar.
01:40And you're a terrifying stranger who just told me I'm going to die.
01:44I pull away.
01:47So, forgive me if I'm not in the mood for small talk.
01:51He doesn't flinch.
01:52Doesn't apologize.
01:54Just watches me with that unbearable calm.
01:57Like he's waiting for me to catch up to something he already knows.
02:02When?
02:03I ask.
02:04Friday.
02:0511.47 p.m.
02:07Today is Tuesday.
02:08I have three days.
02:10How?
02:11I don't know yet.
02:13The model doesn't give specifics.
02:15Just the when.
02:16The how is...
02:18Variable.
02:19Variable.
02:20Fate isn't fixed, Maya.
02:22It's a probability curve.
02:24Right now, yours is trending in a very bad direction.
02:28I stop.
02:29I never told you my name.
02:31No.
02:32You didn't.
02:34The silence stretches between us.
02:36Somewhere in the apartment, a clock ticks.
02:39I can hear my own heartbeat.
02:41Loud and panicked.
02:43You've been watching me.
02:45I whisper.
02:47Haven't you?
02:48Not personally.
02:50He walks to a sleek console on the wall.
02:52Taps it.
02:54A holographic display blooms to life.
02:56Charts.
02:57Graphs.
02:58A face.
02:59My face.
03:00My AI flagged you three weeks ago.
03:03Maya Chen, 28.
03:04Data analyst at Halcyon Financial.
03:07Clean record.
03:07Modest income.
03:08No obvious risk factors.
03:10He pauses.
03:12Then it flagged you again last week.
03:15Something changed.
03:17The flash drive.
03:19The what?
03:20I reach into my pocket.
03:22The drive is still there, warm from my body heat.
03:26I hold it up between us like a tiny bomb.
03:29I found something at work.
03:31I say.
03:32Files I wasn't supposed to see.
03:34Trades that don't make sense.
03:36Money moving in patterns that...
03:38I shake my head.
03:40I copied it.
03:41I was going to go to the SEC.
03:43Ethan's expression doesn't change.
03:46But something shifts behind his eyes.
03:48Something cold.
03:50Halcyon Financial.
03:51He repeats.
03:52You work for Victor Reyes.
03:54You know him?
03:56Everyone knows him.
03:57He takes the drive from my hand.
03:59Turns it over.
04:01He's the reason I built the model in the first place.
04:03We sit on his couch.
04:05A massive leather thing that probably costs more than my rent.
04:09And he tells me everything.
04:12Victor Reyes isn't just a billionaire.
04:15He's a problem.
04:17A venture capitalist with fingers in every pie.
04:19A man who's been accused of everything from insider trading to human trafficking and walked
04:25away clean every single time.
04:28Ethan's company, Prometheus AI, was supposed to be his golden goose.
04:33His ticket to the next level.
04:35Then Ethan found out what Reyes was really doing.
04:38Money laundering, he says.
04:40Weapons.
04:41Political manipulation.
04:43He's been using shell companies to fund God knows what.
04:46And he's been doing it for years.
04:49And the AI caught him?
04:51The AI caught everything.
04:53He leans back.
04:54Rubs his eyes.
04:56I've been building a case against him for eight months.
04:59But every time I get close, someone disappears.
05:02A witness.
05:03A whistleblower.
05:04A journalist.
05:06My stomach drops.
05:08You think he killed them?
05:10I think he had them killed.
05:12There's a difference.
05:13And now he's coming after me.
05:15You stole his files, Maya.
05:17What did you think was going to happen?
05:20I didn't think...
05:21I stop.
05:23Breathe.
05:24I didn't think anyone would notice.
05:27He looks at me then.
05:28Really looks.
05:30And for the first time, I see something other than control in his face.
05:34Something tired.
05:37Something almost...
05:38Human.
05:40You're not the first person to underestimate Victor Reyes, he says.
05:45But you might be the last.
05:47The next two days are a blur.
05:49Ethan doesn't let me go home.
05:51Doesn't let me leave the penthouse.
05:54I argue.
05:55God do I argue.
05:56But he just stands there with his arms crossed, looking at me like I'm a toddler throwing a tantrum.
06:02You're a target.
06:04He says.
06:05Reyes has people everywhere.
06:07If you walk out that door, you're dead before midnight.
06:10I can't just hide forever.
06:12You can hide until Friday.
06:15Then we figure out a plan.
06:16We?
06:17You stole files that could take down a monster.
06:20That makes you my problem.
06:22My problem?
06:24Wow.
06:25Charming.
06:26I'm not trying to be charming.
06:28Good.
06:29Because you're terrible at it.
06:32He almost smiles.
06:34Almost.
06:35We fall into a rhythm.
06:37He works during the day.
06:39Calls, meetings, things I don't understand.
06:42And I dig through the flash drive on his absurdly expensive computer.
06:46The files are worse than I thought.
06:49Offshore accounts.
06:50Encrypted messages.
06:52A list of names.
06:53Some of them crossed out.
06:55What happens to the crossed out ones?
06:58I ask.
06:59He doesn't answer.
07:00At night, we eat takeout on his floor because neither of us wants to sit at the giant table.
07:06He tells me about the AI.
07:08How it started as a passion project.
07:10How it became an obsession.
07:13I tell him about my mom.
07:15My student loans.
07:16The ex-boyfriend who stole my dog.
07:19You named your dog Tax Evasion?
07:21He asks.
07:22It was a statement.
07:24A statement about what?
07:26That I'm hilarious.
07:27He laughs.
07:29Actually laughs.
07:30It's a low, surprised sound.
07:32Like he forgot he could do it.
07:35You're strange.
07:36He says.
07:37Thanks.
07:38You're terrifying.
07:40I know.
07:41And there it is again.
07:42That flicker.
07:44That thing that passes between us when we're not paying attention.
07:48I catch him looking at me sometimes.
07:51Not the way a captor looks at a hostage.
07:54Something softer.
07:56Something searching.
07:58I don't know what to do with it.
08:00So I do what I always do when I'm scared.
08:04I make jokes.
08:06You know, I say on Thursday night.
08:09If I'm going to die tomorrow, you could at least tell me your deepest, darkest secret.
08:14I already told you my deepest, darkest secret.
08:18The AI thing doesn't count.
08:20It's the only one I have.
08:23Liar.
08:24He's quiet for a long time.
08:27Then...
08:28I haven't slept in three years.
08:31I turn to look at him.
08:33We're on opposite ends of the couch.
08:35A carton of cold low main between us.
08:37What?
08:39After the first prediction came true.
08:41A colleague of mine.
08:42Car accident.
08:432.14 a.m.
08:44I stopped sleeping.
08:46I kept thinking, what if I miss something?
08:49What if the model updates and I'm not watching?
08:51He stares at the ceiling.
08:53So I just...
08:55Stopped.
08:56That's not healthy.
08:58No, it's not.
09:00I move closer.
09:02Just a little.
09:03Just enough that our shoulders almost touch.
09:06You can't save everyone, I say.
09:08I know.
09:10You can't save me if you destroy yourself in the process.
09:14He looks at me then.
09:15And for a second.
09:17Just a second.
09:18The mask slips.
09:20I see the fear underneath.
09:22The exhaustion.
09:24The desperate, clawing need to fix something that can't be fixed.
09:28I don't know how to do anything else, he says.
09:32I take his hand.
09:34His fingers are cold.
09:36Mine are too.
09:39Then let me help, I say.
09:42Friday morning, I wake up to an empty apartment.
09:45The sun is barely up.
09:46The city looks like a watercolor painting.
09:49All soft grays and pale golds.
09:51I find a note on the kitchen counter written in sharp, precise handwriting.
09:55Went to get coffee.
09:57Back in ten minutes.
09:59Don't do anything stupid.
10:02E.
10:03I smile.
10:05Then I notice the TV is on.
10:07It's a news channel.
10:08The volume is low, but I can read the chyron.
10:11Breaking.
10:13Prometheus AI under investigation for data privacy violations.
10:17CEO Ethan Cross, named as person of interest.
10:20My blood turns to ice.
10:23The door opens.
10:25Ethan walks in.
10:26Two coffee cups in his hands.
10:28He sees my face.
10:29Sees the TV.
10:31Pack your things, he says.
10:34We're leaving.
10:35Now.
10:36What?
10:37Reyes made his move.
10:38He's trying to frame me.
10:40And if he's trying to frame me,
10:42he's coming for me.
10:44Ethan sets down the coffee.
10:46His hands are steady, but his eyes are burning.
10:49I won't let him touch you, he says.
10:52I won't.
10:54The clock on the wall reads 9.47 a.m.
10:57I have 14 hours to live.
11:00And somewhere out there,
11:01Victor Reyes is counting down the minutes.
11:04You.
11:04Have a great day.
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