“You can stop this, Hawk. You go in. You let Echo rewrite. A clean sacrifice.”
“No,” I said. “Not him.”
Reese’s gaze snapped to me—sharp, analyzing, dissecting.
“You weren’t supposed to be here,” he hissed. “You were never part of the design. He was meant to walk into that chamber alone.”
I stepped in front of Hawk.
Reese blinked—startled.
“Why? He is the superior candidate. His cognition maps closer to mine. You’re a detective, Julia. You operate on emotion. Instinct. Chaos. You can’t interface.”
Hawk grabbed my arm. “Julia—don’t listen to him.”
But I didn’t look away from Reese.
“You built this system around Hawk because you knew you could manipulate him,” I said. “Break him. Strip him down. Use his guilt to force him to die willingly.”
Reese’s jaw tightened.
“It would’ve been clean.”
“But you didn’t account for me,” I said coldly.
He looked genuinely rattled.
“You ruined the equation.”
I stepped closer, my voice low, fierce.
“We’re not numbers, Reese. We’re human.”
His lip curled. “Humans die. Systems endure.”
“Not today.”
I turned to Hawk.
His eyes were wild—fear, disbelief, anger, love—all fighting for space.
“Julia, don’t,” he said. “Don’t you even think about—”
But I grabbed his face between my hands.
“I’m not letting you die,” I whispered. “Not for him. Not for this.”
His voice broke. “Neither am I.”
The override chamber pulsed faster—warning beats like a mechanical heartbeat.
38%… 34%…
Reese shouted, “Lyric—prepare for forced interface!”
“Denied,” the AI replied. “Two viable candidates present. Choice required.”
Hawk grabbed my wrists, holding tight.
