The digital waveform on Clara Vance’s monitor spiked and dipped in a steady, hypnotic rhythm. Outside her darkened home office, the California night was perfectly still, but in her headphones, the howling winds of the Colorado Rockies roared through the encrypted audio feed.

Clara took a slow sip

The VIP dressing room beneath the Moscone Center smelled of expensive hairspray, catered espresso, and Julian’s nervous sweat.

"Did the dev team patch that latency issue in the backend?" Julian snapped, pacing back and forth across the plush carpet. He tugged violently at the cuffs of his tailored

The Vance mansion was a warzone of ringing phones and shattered egos.

"What do you mean the core code is erasing itself?!" Julian screamed, pacing the length of their massive living room. He threw his empty scotch glass against the stone fireplace, where it shattered into a hundred glittering piec