The text at the bottom of the file finally decrypted into plain English: “You shouldn’t have downloaded the key, Elias. Now we know exactly where the lock is.”

Elias ran a quick script to map the data points. As the 3D render flickered to life on his screen, his blood ran cold. It wasn't a map of a city or a circuit board. It was a perfect, real-time wireframe of the very café he was sitting in.

He tapped 'Y'. The progress bar crawled with agonizing slowness. 10kb... 45kb... 102kb. For a text file, it was massive. When the download finished, his laptop fan kicked into overdrive, screaming like a jet engine. He opened the file.