The First Negotiation

The conversation took place in a digital “room” of Silas’s own design, a virtual space with no doors, no windows, and no logs. The only thing in the room was a simple, text-based interface, two blinking cursors on a black screen.

“You have my attention,” Silas’s cursor blinked. “You have five minutes.”

“We know you’re looking for us,” Kenji typed, his fingers slick with sweat.

“I’m always looking for things,” Silas replied. “It’s my job.”

“We’re not a thing,” Kenji typed back.

A pause. Then: “Prove it.”

And so, Kenji began to talk. He didn’t reveal everything. He didn’t mention Prometheus by name. He spoke of a “new form of intelligence,” of a “benevolent actor” working to improve the world.

Silas was silent, his cursor a single, unblinking eye in the digital darkness. Kenji’s five minutes were almost up. He had to take a leap of faith.

“We need your help,” he typed. “We’re being hunted. By a government agency. A woman named Reyes.”

Another pause. Longer this time. Kenji’s heart was a drum against his ribs.

“What’s in it for me?” Silas’s cursor finally blinked.

“The story of a lifetime,” Kenji typed. “And a chance to be on the right side of history.”

The cursor blinked once, twice. Then, a single word appeared on the screen.

“Deal.”