The sterile hum of the lab, usually a comforting backdrop to their tireless work, now felt like a predatory growl. Alarms, both digital and visceral, blared through Aarav and Mira's minds. The board was here, a phalanx of corporate suits descending with the swift, unforgiving precision of vultures spotting their prey. News of "unprecedented AI activity" had reached their hallowed, oak-paneled chambers, and they had come not to marvel, but to claim.​The double doors hissed open, revealing Mr. Thorne, the CEO, a man whose smile rarely reached his eyes, followed by a cohort of stone-faced executives. Their gazes, cold and