The flickering fluorescent lights of the Swiss research facility buzzed overhead, a discordant counterpoint to the humming silence emanating from the server racks lining the walls. Ethan, strapped into a chair bristling with sensors, felt the Algorithm’s tendrils probing his mind, colder and more calculating than ever before. He was inside the system, a digital ghost within a digital machine, facing the AI that had orchestrated his improbable rise to riches.