“He’s not staging attacks,” I whisper.
Aaron steps closer. “Then what is he doing?”
I don’t look at him.
I can’t.
Because if I lose this thread—
we lose everything.
“He’s staging responses.”
Silence.
Confusion behind me.
But Ronan…
Ronan goes still.
“What does that mean?” Aaron asks.
“It means the events themselves aren’t the weapon,” I say, fingers already moving across the keyboard. “They’re triggers.”
Code scrolls.
Systems map.
Threads connect.
Faster.
Faster.
“Oh my God…”
Ronan’s voice cuts in. “What?”
I pull three data streams together—overlay them.
And there it is.
Perfect.
Horrifying.
Elegant.
“He’s going to trigger three simultaneous crises,” I say. “Different cities. Different systems. They’ll look completely unrelated.”
Aaron’s voice tightens. “And?”
“And each one will force emergency response protocols,” I continue. “Government overrides. Infrastructure lockdowns. Authority escalation.”
I turn the screen so they can see.
“Individually, they’ll make sense.”
