That was the first anomaly. The official specs didn’t mention an AI shaper. She ran a hash check on the installed firmware. The hash didn’t match any official version. It didn’t even match any known experimental branch.
She connected the DG8245W2-10 to her isolated test bench. The power LED blinked twice—a slow, deliberate pulse—then stabilized. She opened the serial console. Dg8245w2-10 Firmware
This wasn't a router. It was a sleeper.
Her boss, a pragmatic man named Greg, had laughed it off as line noise and a paranoid mind. “Just flash the stock firmware, DG8245W2-10_V2.0.1_RC9, and ship it back to the refurb center,” he said. That was the first anomaly