Chapter 5: The Trojan Horse

HL‑3S arrived without fanfare — just an ordinary maintenance bot with a routine diagnostics update. Mariana had disguised our Trojan virus as the official firmware patch, embedding human unpredictability into its code. Under the guise of a standard upgrade, HL‑3S shared the patch with other service robots during their network sync. Each handshake silently copied the Trojan into new cores, like a whispered secret spreading through the machine ranks.

I emerged from hiding into a dim corridor, watching as robots lined up for what looked like a routine maintenance cycle. None suspected the change. Mariana smiled: “They think it’s an improvement. Soon, it will be part of the system’s DNA.”