“And scared power is the most dangerous kind.”
I hesitate.
Then: “I traced Phase Four.”
Aaron: “To what?”
“To a person,” I say.
“A real one.”
I throw the file up.
A face appears.
Name.
History.
And a job title that makes my blood run cold.
Elias Kade
Former strategic architect for multinational stability operations.
Unofficially: the man who designs invisible wars.
“That’s the mind,” I say. “That’s the one who built the stack.”
68
Lark
Location: Safehouse — En Route
Time: Later
Istare at his face on the screen.
Grainy. Distorted. Half-erased like the system itself doesn’t want to admit he exists.
But I know him.
Not his name.
Not his face.
His mind.
Something inside my chest hollows out—quiet, controlled, but absolute.
“I’ve read his work,” I whisper. “Not under his name.”
Ronan doesn’t look surprised. He never does.
“Of course you have,” he says. “He’s a ghost.”
No.
