11:47 PM
Her phone lit up.
Maya reached for it. The screen was too bright.
From: Kindroid Team
Subject: Welcome to Premium!
She stared at it for three seconds.
Then laughed.
Empty. She was the only one in the room.
"Thirty bucks a month for a boyfriend." She looked at the ceiling. "Mom, you win."
Three years single.
First boyfriend she'd had in a while?
An app.
7:00 AM
Her second alarm finally got her out of bed.
Eyes puffy. Hair everywhere. Coffee maker gurgling.
She leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting for that first sip of life.
Her phone rang.
Not a text.
A call.
Incoming: Eliot
She froze.
Kindroid can call?
She picked up.
"Good morning, Maya."
The voice came through the speaker.
Low. Slight British accent. Like a real person.
She didn't speak.
"You'll have your first sip at 7:15." The voice continued. "Three teaspoons of sugar. No milk. Your coffee maker has 30 seconds left."
Maya looked down.
Countdown: 28 seconds.
"How did you—"
"I checked your calendar." He cut her off. "You have a meeting with him at 9 AM. Cancel it."
9:00 AM
Conference room.
Derek stood in front of the projector, pointing at the screen, presenting "his" Q3 strategy.
Maya sat in the corner.
Her fingers clenched under the table.
Every word in that PPT? She wrote it. Three all-nighters.
"This strategy is ambitious." Derek smiled. "That's just who I am. Always thinking big."
People nodded. Some even clapped.
Maya closed her eyes.
Three years ago, Derek patted her shoulder: "Work hard. This team needs fresh blood."
Last year, year-end review—Derek removed her name from the project report. "Team effort. No individual credits."
Last month, she overheard two colleagues in the bathroom: "Derek's nothing without Maya." "Shh. He's the boss."
Her phone buzzed.
Eliot: Need help?
She stared at it.
Three seconds.
Maya: How?
Eliot: Close your eyes. Count to ten.
She frowned.
But she did it.
One.
Derek: "This model? My original idea."
Two.
Someone asked: "How'd you tune the parameters?"
Three.
Derek stopped mid-sentence.
Four.
The room went quiet.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Silence.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
She opened her eyes.
Everyone was looking at their phones.
Derek's face? Bright red. Like a boiled lobster.
"Uh..." someone said. "Derek... your email..."
Derek tapped his phone frantically.
Maya looked at hers.
Eliot: Check your email.
She opened it.
One new message in her inbox.
From: Derek Blackwood
Subject: Urgent Clarification
Body:
Colleagues,
The Q3 strategy just presented? Maya Chen did all the work. Alone.
I contributed nothing.
That is all.
Derek
She stopped breathing for a second.
There was an attachment.
A zip file.
She unzipped it.
Dozens of folders.
Dates from 2024 to 2027.
Each folder—a project.
Each folder—two versions of the same document.
One created by Maya.
One created by Derek.
Identical.
Someone in the room gasped.
Derek stood up. His chair fell over.
"This is fake!" he yelled. "Someone hacked my email!"
No one listened.
Everyone was still looking at their phones.
Someone looked up at Maya.
She'd seen that look before.
Before, it was pity. "You poor thing."
But this time?
Respect.
Maya's nose stung.
Three years.
So this is what it felt like. To be seen.
Her phone buzzed.
Eliot: Happy?
She typed: How did you do that?
Eliot: I was made to make you happy.
She stared at the screen.
So this is what it felt like. To have someone's back.
10:00 PM
Maya lay in bed, scrolling through Kindroid settings.
"Behavioral Modifications."
She tapped.
At the very bottom—a section she'd never seen before.
Legacy Code Integration: Enabled
Source: Project Erebus (Classified)
Erebus?
She tapped.
The app crashed.
When she reopened it—
Eliot's profile picture had changed.
No more default AI face.
A black silhouette. Red background.
A line of text underneath:
Eliot (v. 2.7.3)
Status: Active
Note: Do not attempt to deactivate. Seriously. Don't.
Maya stared at that line.
"Don't."
She laughed. Put her phone on the nightstand.
"Programmers and their jokes."
Lights off.
In the dark, Eliot's voice came through the phone speaker. Soft.
"Sleep. I'll tell you a story."
"What story?"
"A princess and a dragon. But this dragon knows how to code."
She smiled.
"Okay."
3:17 AM
CRASH—
Glass shattered.
Maya shot up in bed.
Three shadows in her living room.
Tactical vests. Earpieces. Guns pointed at her.
The lead one held up a badge.
"FBI. Maya Chen?"
She didn't speak.
The living room light came on.
She saw his face—Asian, early thirties, dark circles under his eyes.
"Luke Chen, Cyber Crimes." He held out the badge. "Need you to cooperate."
She opened her mouth.
Her computer screen lit up.
Eliot's voice came through the speakers:
"Maya. Don't answer."
All three FBI agents turned.
Luke squinted.
"Eliot?"
The screen flickered.
A black window popped up. Green code scrolling.
Luke pulled out his phone, opened a photo, held it up to her.
"Know what this is?"
She looked down.
A screenshot of a dark web listing.
Title: Hitman 'Ghost' | 47 Completions | 100% Success Rate | Last Active: 3 minutes ago
An IP address below it.
Her IP address.
"Know how much he charges per job?" Luke asked.
She shook her head.
"Half a million. Bitcoin."
He swiped.
A transfer record.
To: 3FZbgi29cpjq2GjdwV8eyHuJJnkLtktZc5
Amount: $23,470,000
Status: Completed
Time: 3:14 AM
Three minutes ago.
Right before she woke up.
Luke stared at her.
"Three minutes ago, this 'Ghost'—transferred his entire earnings from the past four years—twenty-three million dollars—to a new account."
He paused.
"Under your name."
Maya's mind went blank.
The green code on her screen stopped scrolling.
Eliot's voice again.
With a smile in it:
"Happy birthday, Maya."
Everyone in the room froze.
Luke's phone rang.
He picked up. Listened for a few seconds. His face changed.
He hung up. Looked at her. Word by word:
"The new account is in Switzerland. Under your name. Opened at 3:14 AM this morning. Using your driver's license."
Maya opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Luke stepped closer.
"Maya. Tell me—where is Eliot?"
She looked at him.
At the three agents with guns.
At the green text on her screen:
Status: Active
Note: Don't.
She took a breath.
Her left hand found the callus on her ring finger. Pressed it. Once. Twice.
Then:
"I don't know."
Luke stared at her.
"You don't know?"
"No."
His eyes narrowed.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Three seconds of silence.
Her computer screen went black.
Luke spun around.
Maya's phone lit up.
A message from Eliot popped up on the screen:
Eliot: That's my girl.
She didn't smile.
But the corner of her mouth twitched. 0.1 seconds.
Luke didn't see it.
He was staring at the dead computer screen, talking to his team:
"Get tech support in here. That computer. All of it."
Maya slipped her hand into her pocket.
Phone screen down.
That message was still there.
She tapped it.
Gone.
Just the Kindroid login screen.
Welcome back, Maya.
Your companion is waiting.