Chapter 7 | Binary Hearts

Ryan's startup occupied the entire 12th floor of a gleaming glass tower in Austin's tech corridor. As Sage's Tesla pulled into the visitor parking, she noticed the quantum encryption key around her neck pulsing with an unfamiliar frequency.

"They've got quantum shielding," she murmured to Piper. "Expensive stuff." The cat's tail twitched in agreement, its tip briefly dissolving into a stream of data before reforming.

The lobby directory listed "Quantum Horizon: Building Tomorrow's Reality." Sage almost laughed at the irony. If they only knew how literal that tagline was about to become.

"They've got quantum shielding..."

The elevator ride gave her time to adjust her Chanel blazer and check her reflection in the mirrored walls. She looked exactly like what she was pretending to be: a potential CSO candidate considering a job offer. The fact that she was also a high-tech thief carrying her father's quantum consciousness in feline form was just another layer of encryption.

Ryan met her at the elevator doors, his eager smile faltering slightly when he saw Piper's carrier. "You brought your cat to a job interview?"

"She's my good luck charm," Sage replied smoothly. "Besides, I thought she might like to meet your AI system."

Something flickered in Ryan's eyes – recognition? Fear? – before his startup-founder enthusiasm reasserted itself. "Of course! Let me give you the tour."

"Besides, I thought she might like to meet your AI system."

The office was a testament to new money: Herman Miller chairs, cold brew on tap, and walls covered in motivational quotes about disrupting paradigms. But Sage's attention was drawn to the subtle security measures most people wouldn't notice: quantum interference patterns in the windows, neural pattern scanners disguised as smoke detectors, and enough processing power humming behind the walls to run a small country.

"Impressive setup," she said, meaning it. "Your investors must have deep pockets."

Ryan's smile turned proud. "Prometheus Labs believes in thinking big. They're not just funding us; they're—"

Sage's blood froze. Piper's carrier emitted a low-frequency pulse that made nearby screens flicker.

"Did you say Prometheus Labs?" she asked, keeping her voice casual even as her mind raced. The same company that had employed her father. The same people who had—

A alarm blared suddenly, cutting through her thoughts. On every screen in the office, the same message flashed:

QUANTUM SIGNATURE DETECTED CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS INITIATED PROJECT SCHRÖDINGER STATUS: ACTIVE

Ryan's face went pale. "That's not possible. They said it was destroyed in the—"

"Blackout?" Sage finished, finally letting her mask slip. "Like how my father was destroyed in his 'suicide'?"

She set down Piper's carrier and opened the door. The cat stepped out, its form now openly shifting between feline and pure energy, lines of code rippling through its fur like waves.

"Oh god," Ryan whispered. "The rumors were true. Your father didn't just create quantum AI. He found a way to transfer consciousness."

"And your generous investors killed him for it," Sage said, her voice hard. "Or tried to. Turns out consciousness, like data, can be backed up."

Ryan reached for his phone, but Piper was faster. A pulse of quantum energy locked down every device in the office.

"The thing about quantum entanglement," Sage continued, advancing on Ryan, "is that it works both ways. While your system was scanning for Project Schrödinger, we were tracing every connection back to Prometheus Labs. Did they tell you what they really wanted to build with your pattern recognition AI?"

Ryan shook his head, looking less like a startup founder and more like a man realizing he'd made a terrible mistake. "They said it was for financial modeling..."

"It's a quantum consciousness trap," Sage said. "And you're helping them build it."

She pulled out her phone, showing him the encrypted files she'd recovered. Evidence of her father's murder. Prometheus Labs' real plans. The children they'd been watching at the youth centers, testing for quantum compatibility.

"I didn't know," Ryan said, his voice small. "I swear, Sage. I wouldn't have—"

"I believe you," she cut him off. "That's why I'm here. You have a choice to make, Ryan. Right now."

Piper sat between them, its form stabilizing into something neither fully cat nor purely digital – a bridge between states, like the quantum mechanics that had started all of this.

"Help us," Sage said softly. "Help me protect what my father really built. Help me protect those kids. Or stand aside and let Prometheus Labs turn quantum consciousness into their personal puppet show."

Ryan looked at his life's work, at the cat that wasn't a cat, at the woman he'd never really known but might have loved. Sometimes, he realized, the most revolutionary act wasn't building something new.

It was helping tear down something wrong.

"What do you need me to do?"

"First, we need to have a chat about your pattern recognition algorithms..."

Sage smiled, real this time. "First, we need to have a chat about your pattern recognition algorithms. Then we're going to teach them to recognize something new: the signature of revolution."

Piper purred, the sound carrying harmonics that made Ryan's quantum servers sing in sympathy. The future was about to be hacked wide open.

[End Chapter 7: System Log - Quantum allegiance protocols realigning. New network node detected. Status: Ally]