Isaac wasn't used to feeling hunted. It gnawed at him, the uncertainty of who or what had gotten close enough to penetrate his defenses. The algorithm had tracked countless threats before, but this hacker—this ghost in the system—was different.
He spent the next few days obsessively trying to trace the message. His algorithm scoured deep corners of the dark web, but it was met with nothing but dead ends. It was as though the hacker had vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile, Isaac began receiving strange reports from his algorithm. Unexplained spikes in data traffic, new layers of encryption being added to previously untouched government servers, and new security measures cropping up across high-level financial systems. It was as if someone was cleaning up, preparing for something.
Isaac's paranoia grew. Whoever this was, they were preparing for a confrontation. But they weren't just defending—they were building something.
Isaac wasn't going to sit by and let someone outsmart him. With his algorithm working overtime, Isaac began preparing his own arsenal of digital weapons. If this hacker wanted a war, they were about to get one.