Arjun loaded the drive on the isolated machine. Lines of code scrolled—beautiful and poisonous. Comments in English and Tamil, signatures in ciphers. One function called BLOODSTREAM_ INIT() executed a handshake with a remote keyserver at intervals exactly six minutes apart.

On the monitor, a silhouette appeared—someone using a voice masker, face behind a polygonal filter. The voice was monotone, distracted.

Arjun's pulse narrowed into resolution. "Undo it."

He thought of families trapped in elevators, a dialysis center mid-cycle, the subway system already over capacity for the evening. Time was a currency he couldn't afford to squander.