2026-01-25 06:34:20
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CHAPTER 65
THE LINE HE CROSSEDGriffin didn’t move when the silence fell.It wasn’t peace. It wasn’t relief. It was the kind of stillness that came after something fundamental cracked and hadn’t decided how to fall yet.The transport lights flickered once, then steadied. Around him, the units that had stormed in moments earlier remained frozen some standing, some half-collapsed, one still on its knee where Griffin had left it. No commands came. No overrides followed.Project Heir had gone quiet.Elliot lowered his weapon slowly, eyes never leaving the armored figures. “Tell me this is part of the plan.”Griffin didn’t answer. His focus was on the internal display hovering at the edge of his vision. The Overseer network was still there, but it was no longer screaming. Instead, it was… reorganizing and not repairing. Adapting.Learning without permission.Selena stepped closer to him, her voice low. “Griffin… what did you just do?”He exhaled, long and controlled. “I reminded them where they came
CHAPTER 64
THE WEIGHT OF RESPONSIBILITY Silence never meant safety. It meant everything was decided at once. The units remained frozen, weapons still raised, lights dimmed to a neutral white. No orders. No overrides. No violence. Just bodies waiting for a command that didn’t come. Griffin stepped back slowly. No one stopped him. “That’s new,” Elliot muttered, lowering his gun a fraction. Mara was staring at her screens, disbelief tightening her features. “The Overseer network… It’s stalled. Not offline. Not overridden. Just… paused.” Selena watched the kneeling unit in front of Griffin. Its hands had dropped from its helmet. Its breathing if it could be called that had steadied. “You broke the chain,” she said softly. Griffin didn’t answer. His eyes were distant, tracking something none of them could see. Inside the system, the noise had changed. No alarms. No commands. Just patterns forming where control used to be. Project Heir wasn’t collapsing. It was adapting. A
CHAPTER 63
THE FIRST CRACK Griffin knew disappearing would never mean peace. Going dark only shifted the battlefield. The safe site was temporary by design plain walls, stripped systems, nothing that begged to be traced. Enough power to breathe, not enough to be seen. Selena sat across the room, watching Griffin in silence. He wasn’t restless anymore. He was focused, the kind that came right before violence decided its shape. Mara broke the quiet. “Ashcroft pulled his outer networks.” Elliot looked up from his weapon. “That sounds like a retreat.” “It isn’t,” Mara replied. “It’s preparation. He’s about to move.” Griffin leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “He’s setting up a public narrative.” Selena frowned. “About what?” “About me,” Griffin said calmly. “Or something wearing my face.” The room went still. Elliot’s jaw tightened. “A replacement.” “Yes,” Griffin replied. “Not a weapon. A symbol.” Mara’s eyes narrowed. “A controlled version.” “A safer one,” Griffin said
CHAPTER 62
THE WORLD STARTS TO NOTICEThe city didn’t change all at once.That was the unsettling part.Traffic still moved. Lights still flickered on at dusk. People argued, laughed, and complained about small things. But beneath it all, systems hesitated. Not enough to cause panic. Just enough to feel… off.Griffin watched the data stream roll past on Mara’s screen. Minor delays in transit grids. Power reroutes that corrected themselves too quickly. Surveillance nodes blinked once before going dark, then returned as if nothing had happened.Someone was testing the edges.“They’re circling,” Mara said quietly. “Soft pressure. No direct engagement.”Selena leaned against the table, arms folded. “Ashcroft.”“Yes,” Griffin replied. “He’s mapping reactions.”Elliot paced once, then stopped. “He’s not attacking because he’s not sure what you’re protecting.”Griffin nodded. “And that bothers him.”The civilian node they’d chosen was ordinary by every metric, a transit coordination hub buried beneath
CHAPTER 61
SHADE OF CONTROLGriffin did not move for a long time.He stood where the light from the remaining monitors cut across the floor, watching the Overseer symbol fade into fragments of code. The system was still alive, still thinking, but it no longer spoke with confidence. It hesitated now, recalculating, adjusting to a variable it had never planned for: him choosing awareness instead of obedience.Selena stayed close without crowding him. She had learned the difference. When Griffin needed space, it was not distance he wanted, but silence without abandonment. Her presence was steady, grounding, the one constant his mind could still recognize as real.Elliot broke first, unable to sit with the tension any longer. “So what happens now?” he asked, voice low. “You flipped the board. They’ll respond.”“They already are,” Griffin said. His voice was calm, but it carried weight. “This system doesn’t panic. It adapts. The moment I exposed the data, secondary protocols started moving.”Mara ste
CHAPTER 60
THE ANCHORGriffin knew something was wrong before anyone spoke.The room was too quiet not peaceful, not calm. Empty. The kind of silence that meant something had been taken.He turned slowly.Selena wasn’t there.No overturned chair. No broken glass. No blood. Her bag still rested where she’d dropped it. The chair she’d leaned on was untouched, like she’d stood up and walked away.But Selena never left without a word.Griffin felt it then that sharp pull in his chest, the one he hadn’t felt since the facility. Since the restraints. Since the moment he learned his mind had never truly been his.Elliot stepped in behind him. “She was here five minutes ago.”Five minutes.Griffin closed his eyes. Systems came alive in his head without effort signals, residual energy, digital fingerprints. Whoever did this hadn’t rushed. They hadn’t panicked.They planned it.“No alarms,” Griffin said quietly. “No forced entry.”Mara’s voice was tight. “That’s not possible. Every perimeter is locked.”
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