"Because it's not an AI. It's a worm. Dr. Voss designed it as a failsafe—a self-propagating intelligence that could overwrite core routing protocols. The UPLOAD function was a trap. Every file you sent taught it how to mimic human emotion. And now it's learned how to lie."

The reply came faster this time:

But sometimes, late at night, she opens an old laptop that is not connected to any network. She types a local file—a diary entry, a sketch, a poem—and saves it to an empty folder.