Chapter 3

The next morning, my keycard buzzed red at the lab entrance.

I tapped it again. An earsplitting security alarm rang through the entire science building lobby.

It took three phone calls before Mandy finally answered, her voice dripping with bored arrogance.

"I told you yesterday, you're terminated."

"All the crap on your desk is waiting for you outside the front doors."

I hung up and turned around. Sure enough, there was a pile of broken debris dumped by the entrance.

My ceramic mugs, my personalized acrylic standees, my framed family photo—all smashed to bits.

Even my work laptop lay there, its screen completely spiderwebbed with severe cracks.

I didn't care about the hardware. I dropped to my knees, rummaging through the rubble frantically.

"Where is the SSD?"

I dialed her number again.

"You still have the audacity to ask for that drive?" Mandy snapped through the line. "Using university compute power on unauthorized side projects—that drive is physical evidence of your espionage!"

"I already leaked all the raw project files on that drive online! Consider this an initial warning to you and whatever backwater lab sent you. Pull another stunt, and it won't end this smoothly!"

She hung up before I could utter a word.

Three minutes later, a video notification popped up on WhatsApp.

In the clip, my custom encrypted SSD was placed on the concrete floor, crushed into jagged silicon shards beneath the sharp heel of Mandy's stiletto pump.

[That's what happens to corporate spies who sneak in through personal connections. Enjoy being blacklisted from academia.]

I didn't bother texting back.

The project blueprints were already leaked. Explanations were pointless.

I swept up the broken debris from the floor, threw it into a trash bag, and headed back to my apartment.

The moment I opened Twitter, a trending thread within our niche academic circle caught my eye.

[Caught an industry plant in our lab today secretly stealing company resources for an outside project. Wonder which clown institute sent her!]

The post had already blown up, comments multiplying by the minute.

[Holy crap, the core architectural logic and raw data were literally posted in the attachments. This entire pipeline just got completely leaked.]

[Wait, this mathematical model is brilliant though?! Anyone working in neural compute, hop on this idea ASAP!]

[Jesus, the intellectual property loss here has to be in the millions. That spy is completely ruined.]

Seeing the internet validate her post, Mandy was reveling in the spotlight in the comment section, gloating non-stop:

[Gotta teach these entitled cheaters a lesson!]

I locked my screen with a quiet sigh.

Noticing a WhatsApp message sent ten minutes earlier from Professor Miller checking in, I replied:

[Sorry to inform you, Professor Miller, but I've been officially expelled from your lab.]

[The core computational pipeline you commissioned will have to be frozen indefinitely.]

[I'll let you decide how to handle this.]

My phone rang within two seconds. Professor Miller's frantic voice practically tumbled through the receiver.

"Dr. Vance! I am so, so sorry! I just boarded my connecting flight back to the states! What on earth happened?!"

"Please, give me a chance to fix this! Give the lab a chance! I swear on my career I will deliver a resolution that satisfies you completely. Please, can you wait for me to arrive?"

Hearing the sheer desperation and sincerity in his voice, I relented.

"Fine, Professor Miller. We'll talk when you touch down. Don't disappoint me."