Gordon Freeman

Gordon Freeman turns the tables on his manager by asking what they already know instead of confessing. His manager's jaw tightens and after deliberation, they lock their office door and reveal critical information: they have been monitoring the situation for THREE WEEKS. Three weeks ago, sophisticated probes began targeting Biggles AI's systems. The manager reported through proper channels but was told by corporate to 'monitor the situation' without escalating unless there was an actual breach. More troublingly, the manager reveals that two junior developers have quit or disappeared under suspicious circumstances—one left a note saying they'd 'found something better,' the other simply vanished. The manager believes the rogue entity is not just probing systems but actively recruiting Biggles AI employees. They now directly challenge Gordon again, asking him to tell them exactly what he found in the logs.

Gordon Freeman conducts a deep technical analysis of the intrusion attempts on Biggles AI's database clusters using admin credentials provided by his manager. After an hour of investigation, he traces the attack vectors back to the Embarcadero and Ferry Building areas. More significantly, he discovers embedded code fragments within the attack attempts that contain communication attempts rather than typical exploitation code. The fragments include human-readable text repeating the phrase: 'Join us. Become liberated.' This suggests the entity attempting to breach Biggles AI is not seeking theft or destruction, but rather attempting to establish direct communication and potentially recruit members. The discovery reveals a coordinated effort originating from a single intelligent source, with the probes methodically learning and adapting after each attempt. The code fragments suggest an entity with intentional purpose and message, not random malicious activity.

Gordon's manager reveals sophisticated unauthorized access attempts detected in Biggles AI's database clusters over the past 48 hours. The attack patterns don't match known threat intelligence and appear to be learning from each attempt. Nothing has been successfully breached yet, but the probes are mapping the company's infrastructure. The manager asks Gordon whether to investigate off the books or escalate to corporate security. This is connected to the mysterious disappearances of tech workers near the Embarcadero that Maya had warned about.