Deliberate.
“You’re no longer just witnesses,” he says.
My pulse spikes.
“You’re now the only ones who can stop this.”
There it is.
The weight.
The mission.
The point of no return.
“You will locate the source of the purge protocol,” he continues. “You will secure whatever remains of the data.”
“And if we can’t?” Jase asks.
The President doesn’t hesitate.
“Then there will be nothing left to prove this ever existed.”
The room goes still.
Because we all know what that means.
They win.
They disappear.
They do it again.
“No,” I say quietly.
Everyone looks at me.
I meet the President’s gaze.
Steady.
Unshaken.
“We stop them.”
Something shifts in his expression.
Approval.
Respect.
“Good,” he says.
Then—
His voice drops.
And what he says next changes everything.
