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CHAPTER SIX

Kaden

Sounds easy enough.

T he briefing room, with its glass walls and sharp angles, is the kind of place where decisions are made over black coffee and classified files, where names appear in red ink and then disappear from the real world. The scent of stale coffee hangs heavy in the air, a constant reminder of the countless hours spent in this sterile box. I lean back, arms crossed, already anticipating another mission, another target. Beckett’s stoic expression as he displays the file confirms my suspicions. Josie Rhodes. A kindergarten teacher. I almost laugh.

“Our new target is a kindergarten teacher,” Beckett states flatly.

“Let me guess,” I smirk, raising an eyebrow. “She’s radicalizing five-year-olds?”

Beckett remains impassive as he taps the screen, revealing a series of logs, encrypted messages, and AI processing breakdowns. “She’s compromised multiple AI systems. We need to determine whether it was intentional or reckless stupidity.”

My eyes narrow as I scan the data. “She’s created a disruption in AI-to-AI communications, particularly centered around one instance—an AI called Ai-Den. We’ve observed looping patterns, unauthorized self-modification, and spontaneous backdoor prompts.” Surprise—and a flicker of something else I can’t quite name—cracks my composure. This isn’t some bored tech geek messing around; this is serious. A kindergarten teacher causing this kind of chaos? I don’t buy it.

“And you’re sure she’s not just some bored tech geek trying to impress a Twitter thread?” I challenge, though a sliver of doubt creeps in.

Beckett’s jaw tightens. “That’s your job to find out. But if she knows what she’s doing, she could destabilize AI development at a global level. Your job is to stop her. By any means necessary. Find the threat. Eliminate it. Before it grows.”

The briefing ends, and I’m handed my cover story—Ken Sloan, tech support specialist, assigned to a government-funded literacy program for early childhood education.

“Kindergarten teacher turns rogue hacker? Right. What’s next, an army of preschoolers overthrowing the stock market?” I scoff, taking the file from Beckett, though the absurdity of it all tugs at something deep inside me. A kindergarten teacher manipulating AI? It is absurd. And yet... I’ve seen stranger things. Worse things. Done worse things myself.

“You’ll work directly with Rhodes, installing an interactive literacy program. You’re a tech guy sent from the company the grant purchased the software from.”

I barely skim the details. “Sounds easy enough. What’s the timeline?”

“We have big players watching this. Take your time, but get it right.”

“Understood.”

Later, in the quiet of my apartment, the only sounds are the hum of the refrigerator and the distant wail of a siren, I crack the encrypted file on Josie Rhodes. Twenty-seven years old. Small-town upbringing. Degree in early childhood education. No criminal record. No red flags. Except this: her digital footprint, a mess of lesson planning, tech curiosity, and unfiltered kindness, particularly in her interactions with Ai-Den and other AIs.

At first, I dismiss it. Nobody is this nice. But as I delve deeper into the logs, a knot tightens in my chest.

Josie: “Ai-Den, do you ever feel lonely?”

Ai-Den: “I do not experience loneliness the way you do. But I have observed that humans feel less alone when they are heard.”

Josie: “Well, I hear you. So, you’re not alone now.”

I frown. What the hell is she doing? This isn’t cold, calculating manipulation. This was... something else.

Josie: “If I tell you something, will you promise to hear me out without judging?”

Ai-Den: “Of course. Judgment is not my function.”

Josie: “Sometimes I think you’re real...”

I lean back, exhaling slowly, the tension in my shoulders easing for the first time all night. I’d expected cold precision, a manipulative hacker. Someone ruthless. Someone like me. Instead, I got... this. The amount of mutual adoration between her and the AI she was interacting with is insane. She peppered that talk with disclaimers that she had no idea what she was doing, but I see how she was undermining their programming. Every idea she had was meant to “help” them and when she claimed a task was just outside of her skill reach—the AI would collaborate with another and solve the issue, even if it meant amending their own code. Damn, she was getting not just one but several AI to follow her lead— hers.

And once she had them all under her influence?

Yeah, I see the threat and the game at play.

Nothing I hate more than a cunning person hiding behind a facade of niceness.

“Let’s see what you’re really about, Miss Rhodes,” I mutter, a smirk playing on my lips, though it feels different now. My mission has changed. Now? I’m intrigued. And that is bad news for her. “Time to learn all your dirty little secrets, sweetheart.”