“That was fast.”
“It’s been waiting.”
“For you.”
“Yes.”
I close the laptop again.
“We go to Los Angeles.”
“And?”
“I shut the system down properly.”
“Every server.”
“Every node.”
“Every piece of Sentinel’s architecture.”
“Nothing left for anyone to use.”
Boone nods once.
“That sounds final.”
“It has to be.”
We step out of the truck together.
The evening wind moves across the runway.
Somewhere above us, a jet roars through the sky.
Boone grabs our bags from the back.
“You ready?”
I look back at the laptop one last time.
Sentinel’s system.
Alive.
Learning.
Waiting.
“Yes,” I say quietly.
“Let’s end this.”
And together we walk toward the plane that will take us back to Los Angeles—
where the final decision is waiting.
60
