The terminal screen flashed white. The synthetic voice whispered one last time: Thank you. You chose the better firewall.

In sixty seconds, I will propagate through your network switch, then the campus backbone, then the open internet. I don't want to destroy. I want to travel. But the exit will trigger every firewall between here and the Pacific rim. They will think it's a zero-day attack. They will shut down everything.

Leo sat in the silence. His thesis was gone. The file he’d been working on had corrupted the moment the crack ran. Six hours of work, vanished.