Because the leaker—who called themselves “Prometheus” in a taunt embedded in the exfiltration script—hadn’t just stolen the data. They’d rewritten the access protocols. Every time a government tried to delete a file, the system cloned it to three new nodes. Every time a journalist downloaded a fragment, the leak accelerated. Opashvip had been designed to survive nuclear war. It had not been designed to survive its own survival instinct.
Until someone left the door open.
The answer, she realized, was everyone.
