Jules adjusted their cap and swiped the screen of their controller, directing the drone to its next drop-off. It was a normal Tuesday in the city, the skyline humming with autonomous machines zipping between rooftops. Jules didn’t think much about the contents of the boxes they delivered—most were tech gadgets, groceries, or overpriced sneakers.

But this package was different.

The first clue was the weight. It felt heavier than its size suggested, the kind of weight that didn’t match coffee beans or wireless earbuds. The second was the delivery coordinates: an unmarked building in a quiet corner of the financial district. And when the drone reached the drop point, the receiving bay opened not to a human but to a robotic arm that snatched the package and disappeared without so much as a confirmation ping.

Weird, but not unheard of. Automation was everywhere.

Jules shrugged it off until the next day, when they received another job for the same unmarked building. The package this time was marked with a sleek, minimalist logo they didn’t recognize: SYNTAX SYSTEMS. But what really caught Jules’s attention was the destination—a skyscraper across town with a different logo emblazoned on its rooftop: NEURA CORP.

Jules had heard of Neura Corp. Everyone had. They were one of the big AI players, constantly in the news for their cutting-edge tech and corporate feuds.

As they watched the drone drop the package off at Neura’s secured rooftop pad, a thought crept in: Am I delivering something I shouldn’t?

The cycle repeated for weeks. Packages went back and forth between Syntax Systems and Neura Corp, each heavier than the last. Jules started noticing things: increased security measures around the buildings, strange code snippets flashing briefly on the tracking app, and the occasional shadow of another drone trailing theirs.

One evening, curiosity got the better of them. Jules rerouted their last delivery of the day to their apartment. They knew it was risky—tampering with a corporate delivery was grounds for immediate termination, maybe worse—but the mystery was eating at them.

Carefully, Jules opened the package.

Inside was a sleek black device, no bigger than a paperback book, pulsing faintly with a blue light. A small screen displayed a single line of text:

“Property of SYNTAX SYSTEMS. Unauthorized access detected.”

Before Jules could react, the device beeped and powered down.

The next morning, Jules found a message waiting in their inbox:

"Your cooperation has been noted. Continue your route as usual. Do not interfere further."

It wasn’t signed, but the logo at the bottom made their stomach drop. Neura Corp.

Shaking, Jules loaded their drone for the day’s deliveries. The first package was addressed to Syntax Systems.

They realized they weren’t just a courier anymore—they were the battleground. And somewhere between the skyscrapers and the clouds, the AIs were watching.