Running diagnostics across the system.
Then her fingers stop.
“What?” I ask.
She slowly turns the laptop toward me.
A new message flashes across the screen.
Not from a phone.
Not from a number.
From inside the system itself.
OBSERVER NODE ACTIVE
QUERY: AUTHORITY CONFIRMATION
Boone Grant — Unauthorized
Wren McKay — Recognized
I glance at her.
“That thing knows your name.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“No.”
The message updates again.
REQUEST: DIRECTIVE
We both stare at the screen.
Wren exhales slowly.
“Well.”
“What?”
“I think the system just asked me what it should do next.”
The truck speeds toward the airport.
The quiet house on the river far behind us.
And somewhere deep inside the network—
Sentinel’s creation is waiting for an answer.
59
Wren
