The cafeteria on the fifth floor was half empty.
Most of the staff were still downstairs riding the wave of the restoration rebooting systems, verifying records, calling back suspended surgeries.
The relief in the building was almost physical, like pressure releasing from a sealed room.
Alicia led me to a corner table by the window, away from the few nurses scattered around with their trays.
She set her phone face down on the table something told me she didn't do that for many people and sat across from me with the composed stillness of someone who'd spent years mastering the art of controlled rooms.
A cafeteria worker appeared almost immediately. Alicia ordered without looking at the menu. Two coffees. Eggs. Toast.
Then she folded her hands and looked at me.
"Start talking," she said.
Not unkindly. But not softly either.
I wrapped both hands around the coffee mug that appeared in front of me. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything. Who you are. Who sent you. How you did what you just did in that server room." She tilted her head. "Dennis has a masters degree in network security. He's been in that room since three in the morning. You walked in with a laptop bag and fixed in forty minutes what he couldn't touch in seven hours."
I said nothing for a moment.
*Careful,*
the system murmured.
*What you reveal here shapes how this plays out. She's not asking out of curiosity. She's deciding whether to trust you.*
"Nobody sent me," I said. "I picked up the job request through my platform. Fix It. Tech solutions repairs, diagnostics, network issues."
"Fix It." She repeated it like she was filing it somewhere. "I've never heard of it."
"You will."
She studied me over the rim of her coffee cup. "That's either confidence or delusion."
"Guess you'll find out which."
Something moved at the corner of her mouth again. That almost smile she kept pulling back.
"The ransomware," she said, shifting. "You knew exactly what it was. The variant, the encryption structure, the memory cache vulnerability. That's not general knowledge. That's specialist knowledge."
*She's sharp,* the system noted. *Answer carefully.*
"I did my research on the way here," I said. Which was technically true.
"In twenty minutes."
"I'm a fast reader."
She set her cup down. "You traced the attacker."
"Yes."
"Where?"
I pulled out my phone and slid it across the table. On the screen was a document the system had helped me compile the IP address, the proxy chain, the geographic origin point narrowed to a city and an internet service provider.
Alicia stared at it for a long moment.
"This needs to go to the police. Cybercrime unit."
"Already flagged to the relevant authorities through my platform," I said. "They'll have it within the hour."
She looked up at me.
Really looked the way people do when they're recalibrating someone in real time.
"How old are you?" she asked again.
"You already asked me that."
"You didn't answer me."
"Nineteen."
The word landed on the table between us. She didn't flinch exactly but something shifted in her expression a rapid series of micro-adjustments, like a calculation running behind her eyes.
"Nineteen," she repeated quietly.
"Problem?"
"No." She picked up her coffee again. "Just context."
We ate in silence for a moment. The eggs were surprisingly good. Outside the window the city was fully awake now, indifferent to the crisis that had nearly swallowed the building we were sitting in.
*Bonus intelligence incoming,* the system said. *The attacker IP traces to a coordinated group. This wasn't a lone operator. The hospital was a test run.*
I kept my face neutral.
"A test run?" I muttered, barely moving my lips.
*Three other institutions in the city have the same dormant malware sitting in their networks right now. Waiting. Same entry vector phishing email disguised as a supplier invoice.*
My stomach tightened.
"Ms. Alicia." I set my fork down. "The people who hit this hospital they're not done."
She looked up sharply.
"There are at least three other institutions in the city carrying the same malware. Dormant. Waiting for activation." I held her gaze. "Schools. Government offices. Maybe other hospitals."
The cafeteria suddenly felt very quiet.
"How do you know this?"
"The trace. The pattern in the code. Same signature, same deployment method." I leaned forward slightly. "Whoever did this isn't after one payout. They're running a campaign."
Alicia was already reaching for her phone.
*And there it is,* the system said. *The job just got bigger, Operator.*
"I need to make some calls," she said, standing.
"I know."
She paused, looked down at me. That boardroom authority fully back in place but different now. Layered. "You're not going anywhere."
It wasn't a question.
"Wasn't planning to."
She nodded once and stepped away, phone already at her ear, voice dropping to a low urgent tone as she moved toward the window.
I stared into my coffee.
*Level 2 Operator,* the system said. *And the city doesn't even know your name yet.*
"Give it time," I murmured.
*Oh I intend to.* A pause. *Also she likes you.*
I almost knocked over my coffee.
*I'm a system. I process data. Her eye contact duration alone*
"Absolutely not," I said under my breath.
*Logged. Denial noted.*
Across the cafeteria Alicia caught my eye mid-call and held it for exactly one beat longer than necessary before looking away.
The system said nothing.
It didn't need to.