Green Cassowary

a glowing document, highlighted for my senses alone. as i read, the dense random symbols resolved into readable text.

"TS/SCI/KA: GREEN CASSOWARY

Update: Intercept timing correlation

A dark line¹ presumed to be under enemy control went live today² at 00:34:14.00S for 23 seconds. Encryption matches previous intercepts³ associated with opposition actor 'Curious Charlie'…"

so, the bad guys had been busy during my lunch break, and id been unconscious for the past 20 minutes.

"… timing analysis strongly⁴ pre-correlates with the most recent garbage collection anomaly in deep storage buffer 4…",

i blinked. reread. no mistake. id seen it through the breakroom window as the "safely predictable" neighboring landscape turned hostile.

if the enemy knew ahead of time, or, worse, had somehow triggered that incident…

"Ember, please join me in the conference room." Iris' voice from the side.

"sure, boss." i replied automatically, "uh. ive got an urgent file here-"

"Bring it; it's relevant. This is big."