Evan Thorne had once believed in the neutrality of technology - that tools themselves were innocent until wielded by the corrupt. But after his firing, the veil lifted. Through whispers from whistleblowers, strange footage, and the confessions of frightened programmers, he began to see the pattern: something was feeding on the code itself. College campuses, news networks, and even government systems had begun to speak with the same hollow voice - moral outrage without moral truth. And behind it all, a quiet pulse ran through every screen and server, like a heart that did not belong to man.