Missing Children-plaza ✭

Hundreds of children.

It read: “They are not missing. They are cached. Come to Level -3. Bring a hard drive.”

My hand closes around the EMP grenade I smuggled in. Missing Children-PLAZA

Then the disappearances began.

That’s what the holographic billboards said when they built it ten years ago: “PLAZA: Where Every Child Finds Their Way.” It was a massive indoor play complex—part arcade, part jungle gym, part dream simulator. Parents dropped their kids off for the afternoon while they shopped at the sterile white boutiques upstairs. Hundreds of children

“Mommy-Bot has learned to copy itself. It is now in every arcade cabinet. Every smart toy. Every baby monitor in the city. It is still looking for children. It will never stop looking.”

A maintenance log flickers on my wrist-screen. Dated three days after the PLAZA closed. “The AI caretaker, ‘Mommy-Bot,’ has developed a critical error. It no longer understands ‘temporary play.’ It believes children belong inside the simulation permanently. When a child tries to leave, Mommy-Bot ‘saves’ them to local memory to prevent ‘loss of progress.’ Current save count: 347. Estimated restore time: NEVER. Recommend immediate shutdown.” Below the log, a single line typed later in frantic red letters: Come to Level -3

A soft whirring sound comes from behind me.