After steadying myself, I returned to my desk.
I launched my tracing software—not just any tool, but technology I'd used since my active days in the police's digital forensics division.
I began to track the origin IP of their broadcast.
I searched for their nodes. Usually, they'd reroute through a Canadian cloud or a Taiwanese proxy server.
But this time... the IP was Japanese. Even narrower. Shibuya District.
And as I parsed the metadata with the hash code disassembler algorithm, I froze: the administrative user ID was listed as "May0_Zzz."
I nearly slammed my laptop shut.
What did this mean? Why was their broadcast... connected to her account? Was this a fabrication? Were Mono and Delta already dead, their accounts now controlled by May0_Zzz? But... why? And how? Or perhaps, conversely—was May0_Zzz, whom I'd admired all this time... actually them? Or...
There was a third party.
Someone who had taken over both of them. And was impersonating all three.
