“We choose together,” he said. “If someone goes in—”
“It’s neither of us,” I said.
His brow furrowed. “Julia—”
I turned back to Reese.
“You said Echo was built from your neural matrix.”
Reese hesitated. “Correct.”
“So you’re the strongest match.”
Understanding dawned on his face.
Then horror.
“No.”
I advanced on him.
“Yes.”
Reese stepped back. “Julia—don’t do this.”
“You kill innocent people and call it math,” I said. “You torture Hawk with simulations of his death, call it clarity. You weaponize guilt and call it evolution. You built this system with your mind.”
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt, yanking him forward.
“So you get to shut it down.”
Reese’s eyes went wide. “No—no, Julia, it will kill me—”
“Good.”
I shoved him toward the override chamber.
He stumbled, caught himself on the railing, tried to run—
But Hawk was there.
He blocked Reese’s escape with a simple step, towering, silent, rage carved into every muscle.
Reese backed into the chamber’s threshold, trembling.
“You can’t—this isn’t—”
Lyric’s voice whispered overhead:
“Candidate detected. Neural match confirmed. Beginning shutdown.”
Blue light wrapped around Reese’s body like a veil of energy.
He screamed.
The entire facility trembled.
Panels cracked. Sparks rained. The lights flickered violently.
