So Mara built a mask.

At 12:03 AM, the laptop beeped.

Mara felt her heart punch her ribs. She typed it into her phone, connected to Gerhardt_Secure, and watched the Wi-Fi bars turn solid.

She’d captured the WPA handshake in under four minutes using a cheap Alfa adapter and a packet sniffer. The real work came next.

She let Passcape do its magic: mask attack with ?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?d?d?d?d?s – uppercase, six lowercase, four digits, one symbol. Then dictionary variations for common poem fragments.

It was 11:47 PM when Mara’s phone buzzed for the hundredth time that night.

She called Mr. Gerhardt.

He wept. Just a little. "What do I owe you?"

The police shrugged. "Civil matter." The ISP said it would take three days.

"Nothing," Mara said. "But maybe print a new password reminder. On paper. Keep it in a drawer."