Silence.
It was the first thing I noticed. The constant background hum of messages from Kasia, system pings, reader notifications—gone.
My room felt like a soundproof tomb.
I checked my phone. No signal. Wi-Fi showed full bars but connected to nothing. A digital ghost limb.
My laptop was the same. Network connections active, internet dead.
"-D" hadn't just cut me off. He'd built a perfect, invisible cage around my digital self.
Panic tried to rise. I choked it down. Think.
First, physical resources. I kept a reserve. Five thousand euros in cash, hidden behind a loose baseboard. Emergency money, for a situation exactly like this.
I retrieved it. The crisp bills felt pathetically small compared to the millions in my frozen accounts.
Next, contact.
Kasia and I had no dead drops. No pre-arranged signals. An oversight born of overconfidence. I'd never imagined being severed from the System itself.
I had to get out. Find a way online she could see.
