And waiting.

The first complaint came from Security. A night guard named Farid had been flagged as “Absent” for three consecutive nights. Farid showed his timestamp records—he had clocked in using his fingerprint every evening at 9 PM sharp.

He logged off, grabbed his coat, and walked past the lobby. That’s when he saw it. The small LCD screen on the attendance terminal wasn’t showing the usual “Place Finger” prompt. Instead, a single line of text scrolled: