Chapter 486
Chapter 486:
“The screenshot you just provided,” she said, her voice carrying absolute authority, “is typed in Courier New p>
Several veteran programmers in the audience burst out laughing.
Belle’s face turned scarlet. Her grip on the microphone tightened.
“That — that is because she adjusted her formatting to match our internal servers!” Belle stammered, her voice rising.
Isolde slowly shook her head and sat back down. Under cover of her desk, her fingers moved swiftly across her laptop keyboard. She pressed a single pre-programmed macro key, executing a silent, heavily encrypted script she had prepared precisely in case InnoTech attempted something this reckless — sending a cryptographically verified message directly to the judging panel’s secure server.
“Sophia would sooner delete an entire project than use Courier New,” Isolde said, dismissive as ever. “It seems you have been corresponding with a fraud p>
“How dare you!” Belle shrieked, abandoning all composure. “You are just jealous! You couldn’t even begin to comprehend Sophia’s work! You are nothing compared to her p>
In the front row, Grayson sat paralyzed.
The final pieces of the puzzle slammed into place with the force of a freight train.
𝘙𝗲𝗮𝘥 𝗐𝘪𝗍𝗁𝗼𝗎t 𝗶𝘯𝘵𝖾𝘳𝘳𝘶р𝘵𝗂o𝘯ѕ 𝘰𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗇𝘰𝗏е𝘭𝘴.с𝘰𝗆
The DARPA connection. The impossible live-coding speed. The intimate, firsthand knowledge of Sophia’s obsessive font habits.
He turned to Arthur, his face completely ashen.
“Did you get the report?” Grayson whispered. “The one the PI has been trying to crack for a month p>
Arthur handed him a tablet, his own hands trembling.
“Yes, sir,” Arthur whispered. “A broker on the dark web finally bypassed the DOD redactions. Professor Nelson and the military sealed her files five years ago. Nelson updated her active clearance only recently, when he invited her back to the national satellite project. We were completely blind because it was classified at the highest level.” Arthur paused. “Before your marriage, Isolde Carson worked in a highly classified MIT lab funded by the DOD. Her clearance designation was Subject S p>
Grayson stared at the letter on the screen.
S. Sophia.
He looked up at the stage. He looked at the woman Belle was currently screaming at — calling her nothing compared to Sophia.
A wave of absolute, crushing self-hatred rolled over him. He was the greatest fool on the planet. The god of aerospace engineering had been living in his house, cooking his meals, and raising his child for five years — and he had treated her like a burden.
At the VIP table, Cyrus pulled out his phone and typed a brief post on Twitter:
It is hilarious watching people search the world for a God, completely unaware that the God is sitting right across from them drinking bottled water.
Within seconds, the post had been retweeted ten thousand times.
Isolde ignored Belle’s screaming. She opened her laptop and connected it to the main display feed.
“Since InnoTech is so fond of Sophia’s work,” Isolde said quietly into her headset, “allow me to show you how the real Sophia actually designs a societal framework p>