Ryan collapsed into the dirt, clutching his shattered hip, screaming in agony.
I stared at the tablet.
99% Complete.
Network Handshake Initiating…
It was over. Halcyon had won. Ryan had died for nothing. I had lost my brother, and the ghosts would remain in the shadows forever.
But out on the tarmac, through the blood and the dust, Ryan’s hand shot out.
His fingers, slick with his own blood, closed around the heavy metal connector joining the main trunk line to the tower array. He didn’t try to pull it with muscle. He wrapped the cable around his forearm, gritted his teeth, and rolled his entire body weight violently down the embankment.
The connector snapped. Sparks showered the base of the tower.
On the tablet in front of me, the screen froze.
Error. Physical Connection Lost. Upload Failed. Data Corrupted. Initiating Failsafe Wipe…
Because the upload was severed mid-handshake, Halcyon’s automated defense protocols misread it as a hostile breach. The system didn’t lock the files; it began dumping them. Trillions of bytes of encrypted data—names, bank accounts, assassination orders—were suddenly hemorrhaging onto the open, unencrypted base servers where every intelligence agency on earth could see them.
Halcyon wasn’t just stopped. They were exposed to the sunlight.
Sirens wailed in the distance. The Quick Reaction Force armored vehicles tore onto the tarmac, their heavy machine guns swiveling to lock onto the sniper positions.
I didn’t care about the sirens. I didn’t care about Voss, who was now unconscious beneath Lucas. I dragged myself out the steel door, clutching my bleeding shoulder, and stumbled across the burning tarmac toward the chain-link fence.
Ryan was lying in the dirt, his ruined dress whites soaked in blood. His eyes were fluttering, his skin terrifyingly pale.
I collapsed beside him, ripping off my black dress sash, pressing it hard against the massive exit wound in his thigh and hip.
“Stay with me, Ryan,” I sobbed, my tears mixing with the dust on his face. “Stay with me, golden boy, don’t you dare close your eyes.”
He looked up at me, a weak, bloody grin stretching his lips.
