The power in the café died instantly. In the sudden silence, Viktor heard the heavy hydraulic hiss of the front door locking. From the shadows of the back office, he saw the blue glow of a tablet—and the silhouette of a man who looked exactly like the anchor from the broadcast he was just watching.
"The upload is complete," the man in the video whispered. "The 15th was the deadline. They won't even know they've been replaced." The power in the café died instantly
Suddenly, the video player snapped into existence. The familiar theme music of the news program blared through his cheap headphones. Viktor leaned in, his eyes darting to the timestamp. "The upload is complete," the man in the video whispered
The image tore. Instead of the studio, the screen showed a dimly lit room lined with server racks. In the center stood a man in a lab coat, pointing at a translucent holographic display. It wasn't a map of a country; it was a schematic of a human neural network labeled Project Chimera . The familiar theme music of the news program