His eyes flicked to Hawk with surgical precision.
“Unlike us.”
Hawk stiffened. “You’re talking about Meridian.”
“Of course I am.” Reese’s voice sharpened. “That operation exposed everything wrong with our world. You chose twenty civilians over your teammate. You chose the majority—yes. But the moral weight destroyed you. You never recovered.”
“That’s not your decision to make,” I snapped.
Reese studied me thoughtfully.
“You think you understand his guilt? You’ve tasted your own, certainly. But his? That guilt was the moment I realized humanity shouldn’t be in charge anymore.”
He gestured to the massive server rings above us.
“Echo Core removes that burden. It makes the decisions we can’t.”
Hawk’s jaw clenched. “Echo Core gives you the power to override entire defense networks.”
“Yes,” Reese said plainly. “And that’s why it has to bemeholding the key until the system stabilizes.”
Julia’s fingers dug into my sleeve. “He wants control. All of it.”
Reese tilted his head. “Control? No.Correction.Humans break things. You break people. You break yourselves. Echo doesn’t.”
“You killed people,” I said, stepping forward. “Good people. Your own team.”
“They were flawed. Unreliable. Statistical liabilities.” Reese’s tone was chillingly clinical. “Just as you almost were, Julia.”
Hawk moved so fast that even I barely caught it—he had his rifle raised, aimed at Reese’s head.
“Say her name again,” Hawk growled.
Reese didn’t blink.
“Julia.”
I reached out and lowered Hawk’s rifle carefully. He didn’t look away from Reese, but the muscles in his jaw ticked dangerously.
Reese clasped his hands behind his back.
“Lucas… I’m not your enemy. I’m the evolution you were too afraid to embrace.”
“No,” Hawk said. “You’re a traitor wearing a philosopher’s coat.”
Reese smiled faintly. “You always saw the world so simply. That’s why Echo chosemeas its interface.”
He gestured to the circular walls.
“If you kill me, Echo goes into failsafe. It will spread to every system I’ve connected. It will run the command trees I wrote. The world will belong to the algorithm.”
Julia stepped forward. “And if you stay alive?”
Reese’s eyes lit with a fanatic gleam.
“The world becomesordered.Efficient. People protectedfrom themselves.”
Hawk shook his head slowly. “All this… because of Meridian? Because Ford died?”
