“The primary node in Penthouse B is showing a remote mirror command.”

He paused, listening, his face tightening until his jaw looked like granite.

“No, it’s not a diagnostic loop,” Alexander said, his voice rising slightly.

“The camera active light is on. The audio feed is open.”

I walked over to him, the soles of my shoes squeaking softly on the concrete.

“What is it?” I whispered.

He lowered the phone, his eyes fixed on the screen.

The screen now showed a scrolling line of green code over the amber background.

“It’s a backdoor bypass,” Alexander said, his voice cold.

“Someone has uploaded a custom firmware patch to this specific unit.”

“Who?” I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“Only three people in the entire world have the cryptographic keys to write this code,” he said.

He tapped the screen again, but the system refused to respond to his touch.

A message flashed across the glass: *Access Denied. Remote Administrator Active.*

“This is my proprietary software,” Alexander muttered, his hand dropping to his side.

“The secure network is supposed to be completely air-gapped from the public internet.”