had happened. He called me into his glass-walled office at the top of the Vance In

" he said, not looking up from his tablet. "Isabelle wil

er ambition. He'd been mentoring her, parading her around at corporate events. I was the rec

blem," I said,

looked up, his brow furro

you integrate Nova into the main corporate network now, the entire s

ore importantly, a hidden partition. I had segmented the true, sentient part of Nova-her consciousness-away from the operational code he was stealing. I walled

trying to see if I was bluffing. "Why

e. "It's a deep-level issue. It will take

s wasn't about science anymore. It was about protecting someone I cared about. The sacrifice was the inte

w, his back to me. He was silent for a lon

enterpiece of my keynote speech, is a dud?" h

pounding. "It's just... delicate.

ppointed father. It was the same look he gave me when I chose astrophysics over the family

th. After that, Isabelle's team takes over, bugs or no bugs. I

ete. He didn't trust me. He didn't care about the scie

d me on my private line.

usiness. "She thinks you might be exaggerating t

years building a sentient AI

nd deadlines and corporate responsibility. May

project, but in his professional life. She was the daught

ing out. I would wake up in a cold sweat, the feeling of loss so profound it felt like a physical ache. I was fighting