Ava was furious as she stomped into her personalized virtual training room. Her run in with Ryan had pissed her off but most importantly she wanted to know how he had gotten access to her test scores.

"Good morning Miss Ava, welcome to your virtual office. Today you shall be running an Investment Analysis virtual office. Shall I run the course?" her AI assistant, Juli, greeted.

"Yes but first run an access report for me on file INVA2t-1615" She commanded as she sat down on her desk and began to tidy her work space.

"File INVA2t-1615 shows two access logs. One at 1649 and another one at 1801." The AI reported.

"Okay then. File access violation report INVA2t-VR1801 and update the security settings." She commanded.

"File upload error. No violation detected." The system reported after a few seconds.

"Listen here, you stupid robot, my test score file was accessed by Ryan Prentice and I did not give him the permission to do so. Do not tell me no violation detected!" She seethed. She was tempted to throw her shoe at the monitor but she didn't want the system to tag her as having a violent nature. "Okay then, run access analysis on 1801."

"Analysis complete. File INV2t-1615 was accessed using special access code Alpha ACC000109278." The system informed her.

This made her pause for a moment. So he'd used some sort of special access to view her test scores. This greatly unsettled her. Who knew what else he had seen in her file. He was probably aware of every move.

What was is with that guy and being a pain in her neck?

"Juli, create a shadow server link to all my files and plant a trojan in it. Any third party access to be diverted to the shadow server link." She instructed the system.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to do much damage but atleast her plan will let Ryan know she was onto him.

"Shadow server link created. Trojan file upload complete." The system reported. "Please be reminded that the virtual meeting begins in five minutes."

Feeling satisfied with what she had done, Ava prepared herself to meet with her supervisor and the other members of her team. She had a pretty good idea what the meeting would be about as she had read the notification the previous afternoon. Her team had a new client that needed their expert advice on a certain investment.

Each team member had been given a financial asset to analyze and present. Hers was a Finance Lease with a five year term.

As exciting as all of it was, the work always left her exhausted at the end of each day. The long ride back to Omega didn't hell either. The seats of the express train were thankfully comfortable. She sat all by herself lost in her thoughts.

Just seven more days and she would be twenty one. The thought always left her anxious.

Sighing to herself, Ava closed her eyes to catch a nap. She would probably get ten minutes but it was plenty time for a power nap.

Almost instantly she found herself dreaming. She knew it was a dream because she always saw the same landscape whenever she dreamed. She never talked about her dreams to anyone. They were too weird. In her dreams she always found herself standing in a dark empty space. The thing that made it all weird was the constant pulsing of binary codes in the air all around her. She felt drawn to this place. Connected to it even but she could never really figure out what the connection was.

Ava decided to reach out and touch the binary all around her and as her fingers grazed the anomaly around her, something at the edge of her vision drew her attention.

She turned her head slightly to get a better view of what ever it was that had caught her attention. She saw the silhouette of someone walking in the distance. A sliver of blond hair flashing in the darkness.

Her curiosity propelled her to investigate. She had never seen any other person in her dreams and yet today was different. Today she was certain that someone else had appeared in this dark abyss.

After a few hundred feet of running and chasing a shadow she finally saw him clearly. She had somehow managed to cut him off, having gone around his path. He had intense grey eyes that were a contrast to his platinum blonde hair. She could tell that he was trying to access if she was a threat. This seemed strange to her. Why would she be a threat?

Ava decided to ignore this and talk to him.

"Hello." She greeted but he didn't respond immediately.

After a long silence of observing me he finally spoke.

"You're not a program and yet you are here seeing me."

"Excuse me?" She asked in confusion as she backed away.

"What is your name?" He asked, ignoring her confusion.

"Ava?" She replied, her brow arched in question.

"Where are you now, Ava?" He asked.

"I'm dreaming, what else?" She said, rolling her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing.

"No, this isn't a dream. Somehow you were able to come here." He said before his gaze turned thoughtful. "You mustn't tell anyone how you come here nor must you tell them about me."

Ava froze as he put his hands on her shoulders.

"Who are you? What are you trying to tell me? What do you mean this isn't a dream?" She asked, all these questions making her all the more confused.

"I will come find you and I will get you out. Only then can I answer your questions." He simply said.

"Get me out?" She echoed with a frown.

"I must go and you need to wake up. It's not safe here. There's eyes and ears everywhere." He said.

She opened her mouth to protest but then the loud blaring siren of the subway train startled her awake.

Blinking in confusion, she found herself back in the express train as the other passengers were beginning to disembark.

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