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“Then we’re ready,” the second voice says.
“We’ve been ready,” the man replies.
A beat.
“Do we intervene?”
The man considers that.
Just for a moment.
Then shakes his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this is the moment where they break themselves.”
His gaze fixes on one screen in particular.
Lark.
Framed in data and light.
At the center of everything.
“If she chooses the truth,” he says softly, “we destroy her.”
“And if she chooses the protector?”
A flicker of something colder.
More final.
“Then we destroy everything else.”
Silence.
Then—
“Either way…”
The man’s smile returns.
Sharp.
Certain.
“We win.”
55
Ronan
Location: Mobile Command — Lisbon Perimeter
Time: Same
