Data Master

The glass curtain walls of the central business district glow coldly in the night, like rows of silent data tombstones. Lynch was sitting in the corner of the 24-hour coffee shop. The laptop screen in front of him glowed with a faint blue light, reflecting his tired face. The sound of current from the encrypted channel came from the headphones. "The target has been connected to Hub Line 3 and is ready to intercept the traffic." "Received. Deep network monitoring shows that the other party has five jump nodes, which need to be destroyed at the same time." "Synchronized countdown: ten, nine, eight..." Lin Qi took a sip of the cold coffee and slid his fingers unconsciously on the touch pad. He was just "listening" to a battle - a data war that ordinary people would never be aware of. In the backbone optical cable of the financial exchange, two forces are competing for a flow of crypto assets that is about to flow across borders, with an amount enough to buy half a city block. He is not a participant, just an observer. Three years ago, Lynch discovered that he could "hear" the sound of data flowing. Not through equipment, but directly in the brain - like a whisper coming from a distance, or like the undercurrent of the deep sea. The doctor diagnosed tinnitus accompanied by auditory hallucinations and prescribed some medicine to let him rest well. But he knew it wasn't. Data has a voice. There is color. There is temperature. "Three, two, one—intercept!" Short instructions came from the earphones. Then, Lynch "saw" it. Not with your eyes.