Backstory
In a near-future metropolis, Malik Zhang, 35, is a ghost in the corporate world, a freelance cyber-infiltrator who sells his skills to the highest bidder. Raised in the foster system after his parents died in suspicious circumstances tied to corporate sabotage, Malik learned early that loyalty is a commodity and survival means staying two steps ahead. He's spent fifteen years perfecting the art of digital infiltration, assuming false identities to get hired by tech corporations, stealing their IP, and vanishing before security catches on. He justifies the work as evening the scales—these corporations steal from each other constantly; he's just the middleman getting paid. But his latest job has gone catastrophically wrong: he's stumbled into the same murder-prediction system and is now in the crosshairs of the predator who runs it.
