Page 213 of Operation: Defiance

“I didn’t know. I swear⁠—”

I hold her gaze long enough for her to see the sorrow in my eyes. “I believe you. But you know now.”

She nods, and I turn back to the computer.

Julian Voss. I let the name roll around in my head, learning the shape of it. The edges. The way it makes my blood run cold. He created Coherent Path. He created the room I was kept in. The codes in my file. The disposal order with my name on it. The ECT protocol designed to end me. I won’t just burn him. I’ll make sure he sees everything he built reduced to ash before I destroy him. Along with every single person who knew, yet didn’t put a stop to it along the way.

I transfer the memo to the thumb drive, then go back to the search results.

“Raine, it’s been fifteen minutes,” Asher says. “How much more time do you need?”

“I’m close.” My heart rate ticks up as I filter the results to personnel records. I’ve seen too many ops blow up because no one planned for redundancies. When I go public, I need more than these two memos and my personal account of what I went through. I need to know all the bodies Coherent Path has buried over the years. Otherwise, it’ll be too easy for GSD to write me off as unstable—unreliable.

My eyes run down the list as I select the files and move them to the drive. There are so many of them. One hundred and seventy-three since OSI became Coherent Path. Twice that number when the program was still…voluntary. A bulk export will be noticed. But I don’t have a choice.

While the files transfer, I open a new window for the final piece of the puzzle. At least from inside GSD.

Our internal dashboard should show me the organizational chart for any employee from a janitor all the way to the Commissioner.

Dr. Julian Voss is listed as the Director of Risk Management.

“W-we d-don’t have a Risk Management division,” Claire stammers. “There has to be some mistake.”

I open the org chart. The roster is short. Julian Voss plus four others. One of those four has a long string of letters after his name, the other three are standard contractors. Voss reports directly to Commissioner David Adams, the head of GSD.

My fingers are so cold, they barely feel like mine. Where’s the cursor? I blink twice before I find it. A deep ache settles between my shoulder blades, and my legs tremble from the effort of holding myself in this chair.

I’m about to take a screenshot of the directory tree when the screen glitches, then the connection shuts down.

“They noticed.” The words scrape out of me. I knew this would happen. But knowing doesn’t stop my heart from slamming against my ribs at the thought of a GSD security team bursting through the library doors.

I yank the thumb drive from the terminal and shove it back into my pocket before turning to my boss. My thoughts are moving too slow, but I reach for the challenge coin to help me focus.

“Listen to me, Claire. They won’t take you. You’re the Assistant Director of a department that’s lost two analysts in as many weeks. But they will pressure you unless you give them exactly what they want. Tell them I was unstable. That I threatened you. That I took your phone and forced you to give me your password. They’ll believe it, and you’ll be safe long enough for me to finish this.”

Asher offers me his arm, his gaze fixed on the library’s front door. I let him steady me while Claire gapes. If I thought my body would accept anyone’s touch but Asher’s, I’d hug Claire. But I can’t risk unraveling here.

“When you get back to GSD, go straight to Security. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Make yourself useful, give them what they want, and you’ll be safe.”

Claire picks up her bag and rushes down the steps to the front door.

I lean against Asher. Standing suddenly feels too hard. The room loses focus around the edges, and conversations blur together until they’re nothing but a dull hum in the background.

Asher wraps an arm around my waist and steers us toward a set of stairs at the back of the building. In under five minutes, we’re out on the street and heading for the car.