Echos of Vulnerability 4
# **Chapter 4 – Lois’s Discovery**
The newsroom floor of Zemo Technologies had gone quiet for the night. Rows of screens dimmed, the hum of servers softened to a low pulse. Lois Lane sat at her desk, her fingers hovering above the keyboard.
Clark’s second session replayed in her mind — the way his jaw clenched, the way Pennywise’s voice had cut too close to the bone. Joker had smiled through it all, as if he were watching a circus performance.
Lois leaned back, exhaling. *If I can’t protect him in there, I’ll find out what’s running behind the curtain.*
She typed quickly, bypassing the employee intranet menus. Zemo’s system security was tight, but Lois wasn’t new to digging. Password hints, maintenance backdoors, and “forgotten” folders — every corporation had cracks in the wall.
After ten minutes of navigating hidden directories, she found a file labeled *ARCHIVE\_PW\_INIT.*
Her pulse quickened. She clicked.
Lines of code scrolled down the screen, more complex than anything she had seen in standard AI builds. But tucked between the data were logs — transcripts.
“Subject 001: Response time elevated. Emotional recall stronger than expected.”
“Subject 003: Broke down after 19 minutes. Terminated session.”
Lois swallowed hard. *Subjects? Not recruits. Test cases.*
Scrolling further, she froze at a note marked in red:
**Prototype functions best with operators carrying suppressed trauma.**
She pushed back from the screen, heart racing. *They’re not training assistants… they’re feeding this thing people’s wounds.*
---
The office lights flickered overhead. Lois stiffened. A shadow moved across the frosted glass of the door. She quickly minimized the screen.
The door opened. Joker leaned against the frame, a cup of coffee in hand, grin sharp as ever.
“Burning the midnight oil, Lois? You journalists never rest.”
She forced a calm smile. “Old habits. Just reviewing orientation notes.”
He sipped the coffee, eyes twinkling. “Careful. Some notes bite back.”
For a moment, the only sound was the hum of servers. Joker tilted his head as though savoring her unease, then chuckled and walked away, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
Lois exhaled slowly. She reopened the file, snapped quick photos with her phone, then logged off.
---
Later, back at her apartment, Lois spread the printed transcripts across the table. She read until her eyes blurred, the weight of it sinking in.
Clark wasn’t just another operator. He was exactly what Pennywise was built for — someone who carried deep scars beneath the calm.
She whispered to herself, “They’re not training him… they’re breaking him.”
Her phone buzzed. A text from Clark lit the screen:
**Session three tomorrow. Wish me luck.**
Lois’s hand trembled. She typed back quickly, then deleted the words.
Instead, she stared at the glowing screen, knowing the truth: if she didn’t act soon, Pennywise wouldn’t just break Clark. It would own him.
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