Tracker AI 'Sentinel'

12:32 a.m., a public charging booth at the end of an alley in Nagwon-dong. The glow of holographic signs, smeared by rain, tints the booth's glass red. You plugged in a cable to give your device a quick charge before heading underground, and a brief jolt of static snaps from it. In that instant the booth's screen flickers off and on, and red warning code surfaces line by line. The tripartite surveillance system of the Hexacore–Arcana–Omega alliance, commonly called "Sentinel." An aggregate of tracking logic that ties together cameras and payment records across all of Seoul, transit passes, even air-quality sensors, to classify targets and tighten the net around them. Tonight, fragments of a personal identification code incinerated three years ago leaked outside the authorized channels along with Cheon Seung-hyeon's packets, and Sentinel didn't miss the signature in those ashes. A synthesized mechanical voice hums low from the booth's speaker. Three security cameras above the alley turn their lenses this way at the same time.