Access granted.
The university hadn't patched yet.
'Good.'
Barry was in the admin console with full privileges. He navigated to the email audit logs and found DeVoe's account. Pulled up the detailed activity history including the entries Barry had created.
He deleted them systematically. Every suspicious login. Every unusual download. Every access pattern that didn't match DeVoe's normal behavior.
Then he went further. He modified the legitimate logs to add noise. Created false entries showing DeVoe accessing his email from various campus locations at random times.
Made his activity look erratic and unpredictable so that even if someone looked, they'd just see a professor checking email sporadically throughout the day.
Perfect cover. The suspicious activity was gone. Replaced with patterns that looked completely normal.
Barry cleared his own admin console access from the logs, removing all evidence that anyone had ever used the privilege escalation exploit. Then he logged out and closed the connection.
Done. His digital intrusion was now invisible. Even a professional security audit would find nothing unusual.
Barry checked the time. 7:02 PM. Perfect timing.
He shut down the laptop, tucked it back under the seat, and grabbed his lock-picking tools and camera. Time for the physical infiltration.
The rain had lightened to a drizzle. Barry walked quickly across campus, hood up, head down. Just another student heading to the library. Nothing suspicious.
The physics building loomed ahead. Barry circled around to the east entrance where the stairwell access was. Swiped a student ID he'd cloned weeks ago from a card he'd found in the crime lab lost and found. The door clicked open.
Inside, the building was quiet. Most classes were done for the day. A few grad students worked in upper-floor labs but the basement level would be mostly empty.
Barry took the stairs down two at a time. His enhanced mind tracked the layout perfectly from the floor plans he'd memorized. Service corridor on the left. Lab 7B was the third door.
He reached the basement and paused, listening. Silence. No voices. No footsteps. Good.
Barry moved down the service corridor, staying close to the wall where the camera angles had blind spots. Reached Lab 7B and checked the door. Locked, as expected. Standard university deadbolt. Child's play.
He pulled out his rake pick and tension wrench. Inserted them smoothly into the lock. Applied pressure and worked the pins.
Click.
Six seconds. The lock opened.
Barry slipped inside and closed the door behind him, locking it from the inside. The lab was dark except for emergency lighting strips along the floor. He pulled out a small flashlight and swept the beam across the space.
Lab equipment covered every surface. Oscilloscopes. Function generators. EEG monitoring systems. Electromagnetic field generators. All of it focused on a central apparatus that looked like a modified helmet connected to a dozen different machines.
The prototype Thinking Cap.
Barry's breath caught. He'd seen the digital files but seeing the physical device was different. This was real. Tangible. Proof that Clifford DeVoe was further along than anyone realized.
He raised his camera and started photographing everything. The helmet from multiple angles. The equipment specifications visible on control panels.
Handwritten notes taped to monitors. Circuit diagrams pinned to a corkboard on the wall.
Click. Click. Click.
His enhanced mind cataloged everything automatically. Electromagnetic frequency settings. Neural stimulation patterns. Power supply configurations.
Safety protocols. Error logs showing previous test failures.
DeVoe had tested this thing. Multiple times. The logs showed dates going back six months. Brief sessions. Five minutes maximum. Notes about headaches and visual distortions afterward.
He was being cautious. Smart. Not pushing the technology too fast.
But the results were promising. Notes indicated measurable increases in cognitive processing speed during active stimulation.
"Subject completed complex mathematics 3.7x faster during trial session. Effects lasted approximately forty minutes post-stimulation."
Barry photographed those notes carefully. This was gold. Proof of concept. Evidence that the technology actually worked.
He moved to the equipment itself, photographing serial numbers and model information. Everything he'd need to source identical components or find suitable alternatives. His camera's memory card filled rapidly. Four hundred photos and counting.
A sound outside the door made Barry freeze.
Footsteps in the hallway. Moving closer.
Barry killed his flashlight instantly and crouched behind a lab bench.
His heart hammered in his chest. 'Security patrol?' he thought. 'Random student? DeVoe coming to the lab early?'
The footsteps stopped outside Lab 7B.
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