“I’ll take him,” Rio said, his words slicing through the room like a blade. Conversation died instantly, the air going still as if the sound itself had stolen the oxygen. Every head turned his way, eyes narrowing, widening, searching. His jaw was set, his gaze unflinching, hard enough to challenge anyone who dared to argue.
“Somewhere else. Away from all of you.”
The words hung there, heavy and final. No one rushed to answer.
“No,” Jamie snapped after a pause. “Lyric stays here. Not a single one of us will turn him in—unless we need to.” He added that last part with a hint of menace that made my stomach knot.
“What about you?” I asked Levi, my voice sharp.
The cop shook his head, weary. “I’m with Killian and the Cave,” he said. “But I have to go. I’mcompromising things just by being here.” He left then, the door closing behind him.
A cop on my side? The thought twisted through me, uncertain and fragile.
I pulled the footage back up and ran the press conference again, this time at a slower speed, scanning every corner of the frame. The desk, the flags, the background—it all looked too clean, too crisp. I zoomed in on the wall behind him, the edges of the seal blurring, the lighting inconsistent. Crowd shots repeated the same faces at different angles, like a shuffled deck of cards that appears random. It screamed manipulation—AI-enhanced, maybe even fully AI-created. None of it felt real, as if Kessler had conjured a press room out of code and smoke. If he could manufacture the truth this easily, then the lies he fed the world were limitless.
“This isn’t real,” I said, exhausted, and turned the laptop to face Jamie. “I’m not convinced that’s Kessler at all.”
Jamie frowned. “You’re sure?”
“It’s AI; I’d bet my life on it. LyricNight is using any tool it has to find me. It’ll accelerate. Every contract it pushes from now on will be about silencing me before anyone looks too close.”
“Is Kessler doing this?” Jamie asked.
“He could be. But why?” Lyric frowned. “He’s a salesman, good at playing the part of genius billionaire in front of the camera. No, that’s not him; I’d bet my life on it.
“If that’s not him giving that speech, then where is he?” Jamie flicked screens. “Three more contracts in the last two days on you, dead or alive. And there are media reports saying you’re involved with domestic terrorism or cyberterrorism, plus recent digital breaches within banks.”
“Anything to have me gone.”
“Which makes it volatile and more dangerous.”
“All I can hope is that it’s creating its own fear,” I began, and Rio frowned at me. “It’s paranoid,” I began in an easy way to explain what no one could truly understand—that AI could learn and rewrite itself and potentially break free of the constraints of human control. “LyricNight has accelerated its self-defense mode, pushing out more lethal contracts and harsher countermeasures to find me and kill me, and it risks exposing itself.”
“How can we fight something we can’t see?” Rio asked.
Fuck, I wish I had an answer.
Jamie closed the laptop. “More importantly, Lyric, why the fuck does this AI wantyoudead?”
TWELVE
Rio
“I don’t knowwhere to start,” Lyric murmured. “But?—”
“Wait! I’m looping in Caleb,” Jamie said, pulled out his phone, tapped the screen, and placed it on the table, angled toward Lyric. A second later, Caleb’s face filled the display. He was as serious as Jamie—eyes sharp, mouth set.
“This is Caleb,” Jamie said. “Works with Killian at the Cave, and with Levi.”
“What is the Cave?”
“Need to know basis,” Jamie deadpanned.
Lyric didn’t answer right away. His gaze flicked to me instead, searching.
“You can trust him,” Jamie prompted, but Lyricwas still watching me for my say-so. My chest tightened.
I gave a short nod. “He’s okay,” I said gruffly.
