Codebreakers

Chapter One: The Hidden Level

1972. The faint hum of machinery filled the room as a young engineer, Nathaniel Ross, adjusted the knobs on a bulky console. A prototype arcade machine buzzed to life, its screen flickering with pixelated shapes that looked more like static than a game. It was crude, but it was history in the making.

Nathaniel wasn't working in any ordinary lab. Tucked deep within a nondescript government facility, his job wasn't just to create fun and engaging games. His orders came straight from the Central Intelligence Agency. Every line of code he wrote had a hidden purpose.

"Testing subroutine 27-B," Nathaniel muttered, pushing his glasses higher on his nose.

The screen changed. A simple paddle and ball game appeared, a precursor to what would later be known as Pong. But embedded in the game was something else: an encoded message. Using patterns in the ball's movement, Nathaniel had created a cipher that could only be deciphered by those who knew what to look for.

"Perfect," said a voice behind him.

Nathaniel jumped, nearly knocking over his coffee. Agent Maxwell stepped forward, his suit crisp and his expression unreadable.

"You've done well," Maxwell said, tapping a cigarette into a nearby ashtray. "This is exactly the kind of subtlety we need. No one will suspect a thing."

Nathaniel hesitated. "But...what's it for? Why games?"

Maxwell's lips curled into a thin smile. "That's above your clearance, Ross. Just keep building."

Nathaniel nodded, though unease gnawed at him. He turned back to the machine, watching the paddle bounce the ball across the screen. It was a simple game—but behind its innocent façade, it carried a secret meant to outlive them all.

Present Day.

"Are you even paying attention, Elliot?"

Elliot Graves blinked and snapped back to reality. He'd been zoning out during the morning meeting at Titan Interactive. His boss, Sarah Delgado, glared at him from across the conference table.

"Sorry," Elliot said, sitting up straighter. "I was just...thinking."

Sarah sighed. "Well, try thinking about WarpStrike Infinity. We're weeks away from launch, and the dev team is still working out glitches. You're the chief engineer, Elliot. We need solutions, not daydreams."

Elliot nodded, his mind still half-occupied with memories of his childhood. Growing up, he'd spent countless hours with a joystick in hand, dissecting every pixel of classic games. He had always been fascinated by the oddities—glitches, patterns that didn't make sense, and moments when it felt like the game was trying to tell him something.

"Understood," Elliot said, trying to shake the nostalgia.

The meeting dragged on, with discussions of marketing strategies and final bug fixes. But Elliot's thoughts kept wandering. There was something about WarpStrike Infinity that felt...off. Subtle patterns in the game's physics engine had triggered a faint echo of something he couldn't quite place.

As the team filed out of the room, Elliot lingered behind. He needed a moment to clear his head. That's when he heard it—muffled voices coming from the adjacent room.

"...CIA protocols are already embedded," a voice said.

Elliot froze.

"You're sure it'll activate on launch?" another voice asked.

"Yes. The algorithm's been tested. No one will suspect a thing."

Elliot's heart raced as the voices faded. He waited until the coast was clear, then slipped out of the conference room, his mind spinning.

"CIA protocols?" he whispered to himself.

Something told him this wasn't just a glitch in the system. And whatever it was, he needed to find out.