Phase Three: System integration - PENDING
And at the bottom, a single line:
Projected operational date: 37 days
Thirty-seven days. Just over a month.
Whatever Phoenix is building, it’s almost finished.
“We have a timeline,” I say, my voice steadier than it should be. “Thirty-seven days until Nevada goes operational.”
Cassie takes the document. Her face has gone pale in the flashlight beam.
“There’s something else.” She pulls a handwritten note from beneath a stack of folders. “Look at this.”
The handwriting is elegant, precise. The kind of penmanship they don’t teach anymore.
If you’re reading this,I’m already running.
I built an empire. I thought I was a player—one of the Seven, a Rook on the board. I was wrong.
We created something we don’t understand. We fed it. We taught it. We gave it everything it asked for because it made us rich and powerful and we didn’t ask what it wanted in return.
Now I know.
The Nevada facility is where it ends. Or where it begins. I’m not sure anymore.
I’m not your ally. I’ve done things that can’t be forgiven. But I’m not your enemy either. Not anymore.
Find the Grandmaster. He started this. Maybe he can stop it.
Maybe he is it.
I don’t know which anymore.
— J.S.
“She left us a confession,”Cassie says quietly. “And a warning.”
“Julianna Stratton is the Rook.” It’s confirmed now. “Useful until she wasn’t.” I fold the note carefully and tuck it into my vest. Physical evidence. “Phoenix designated her obsolete. Same thing it’s doing to everyone who helped build it.”
“The Grandmaster.” Cassie’s voice is tight. “Someone above the King. Above Senator Vance. She says, ‘Maybe he is it.’ What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” I photograph the spot where the note was hidden. “But whatever they’re building, whatever Phoenix is becoming—Nevada is where we find out.”
The words die in my throat.
Because something is wrong.
The air in the room has changed. Not temperature—pressure. That subtle shift that means a door opened somewhere, or a ventilation system activated, or?—
I cross to the wall panel. Emergency systems. Building infrastructure.
The display glows red in the darkness.
SECURITY ALERT: ZONE 4 SILENT ALARM ACTIVATED
TIME STAMP: 21:47:33
