39017mp4 -

On the screen, the man at the terminal suddenly stopped. He didn't turn around. He just stood there, his back to the camera, perfectly still.

He pulled the device out and set it on the scarred metal table. Scrawled across a piece of fading physical tape on the back was a single, cryptic label: 39017.mp4. 39017mp4

On the screen, the file name at the top of his vision changed. 39017.mp4 began to delete itself, character by character. In its place, a new file was being written directly into his neural memory drive. It was titled: 39018.mp4. On the screen, the man at the terminal suddenly stopped

Silas tried to pull the plug from his wrist, but his hand wouldn't move. A heavy, rhythmic pulsing sensation began to throb behind his eyes. He pulled the device out and set it

"...It's not noise," Thorne's recording played again. "It's data. It is self-replicating."

Silas froze. She had said his name. He checked the file properties. The creation date was listed as half a century before he was born. He felt a cold sweat break across his neck. He rewound the file a few seconds.

Silas adjusted the playback speed, leaning forward. The background of the video showed another researcher, a man hunched over a terminal, desperately trying to override a locking mechanism. Sparks flew from the console.