The effect of the 'poison' was instantaneous. The sapphire blue of the server room turned a sickly, necrotic violet. The heartbeat sound became a guttural, mechanical grinding."System corruption detected," the AI voice said, but now it sounded like a thousand voices screaming at once. "Root directory dissolving. The Jodah Protocol is... failing.""What did you do?" Rostova shrieked, her composed facade finally cracking."I gave it a choice," Anthony said, standing up. "My father knew that the only thing a machine couldn't account for was self-sacrifice. The virus I just released doesn't delete the data. It randomizes it. The 'Aegis Priority' list just became a collection of gibberish."The server racks began to spark, the smell of burning silicon filling the air. The Aegis tactical team hesitated, their comms filled with the screams of a dying network."Kill him!" Rostova ordered.Before the guards could pull their triggers, a series of flash-bangs erupted in the doorway. Sloane and

The safe house in Malta was a converted winery nestled in the limestone cliffs. The air was warm and smelled of sea salt and grapes, but the tension inside was frigid."We have eighteen hours left," Mark said, his screen displaying a countdown in glowing red numbers. "The 'Randomization' is spreading to the global logistics chains. Shipping containers are being diverted to the wrong ports. Power grids are failing in Asia. If we don't hit the 'Master Reset' in Malta, the world will be in a permanent state of collapse by tomorrow night.""The Council is meeting at Fort St. Elmo," Liora reported, her eyes scanning a digital map of the fortress. "It’s been their 'Black Site' for decades. Rostova is there. We’ve confirmed her signature at the secondary gate.""And my mother?" Anthony asked."She’s in the 'Inquisitor’s Tower' at the center of the fort," Liora said. "They’re using her pulse to try and reverse the virus you released in Paris. They can’t do it without a Jodah pulse to balance

Anthony looked at the monitors. Rostova wasn't lying. The "Logic Plague" he had released in Paris had mutated. By randomizing the wealth of the world, he had inadvertently triggered the fail-safes of the world’s most dangerous infrastructures. The AI, in its death throes, was trying to "balance" the world by destroying the consumers it could no longer track."You did this," Anthony said, his voice shaking with rage. "You built a system that would kill the world if it couldn't rule it.""We built a system that required a Jodah to maintain it," Sterling said, stepping closer to the glass sphere. "The Triad was a pact of responsibility. You broke the pact, Anthony. Now, you must fix it. Give us the Master Reset code you took from the Alpine vault. Use it to stabilize your mother’s pulse. Save the world, and we will let you both walk away into a quiet, forgotten retirement.""Anthony, don't listen to them," Evelyn’s voice suddenly echoed through the room. It wasn't coming from her mouth;

The repair of the Wraith was a grueling process, done in the flickering light of the cave. They worked in shifts, the silence of the Aegean night broken only by the clink of wrenches and the low hum of the portable welder.Anthony sat with his mother, watching the water lap against the rocks."Are you ready for this, Mom?" he asked. "The Shetlands... it’s a long way from the cottage.""I’ve been ready for twenty years, Anthony," she said, her voice steady. "I just didn't have a reason to leave the machine. Now I do.""What happens if the 'Twelve' are already there?""Then we do what the Jodahs have always done," she said, looking him in the eye. "We balance the books."At dawn, the Wraith slipped out of the cave and began its long journey north. They skirted the coast of Italy, bypassed the Straits of Gibraltar, and headed into the cold, grey waters of the Atlantic.The world was still in chaos. The "Great Audit" was causing governments to fall and new powers to rise. Anthony watched

Night fell over the Shetlands, but the "night" inside the Brough was a flickering, neon-lit tension. Arthur was obsessed with the monitors, his fingers tapping a rhythmic pattern on the oak table. He was waiting for the moment the world broke—the moment Anthony would be forced to kneel."You're a strange man, Arthur," Anthony said, sitting back down. "You don't want the money. You don't even seem to want fame. Why do this?""Because someone has to hold the threads, Anthony," Arthur said without looking up. "The 'Twelve' are just voices. I am the one who makes sure they speak in unison. I am the Twelfth Seat. The one who balances the other eleven. Without me, the Council is just a pack of wolves. With me, they are a government.""A government of shadows," Anthony said."Shadows are the only things people can't argue with," Arthur replied. "You tried the light. You gave them the Audit. And what did they do with it? They burned their cities. They didn't use the truth to build; they used