Chapter 27
Charlotte
The comms unit crackled in my ear as I hunched over my laptop in the run-down office building. Through the static-laced connection, Ethan’s voice came through steady and controlled, his Russian accent perfect down to the slight Muscovite inflection.
“Da, I understand your concerns about authentication.” His tone carried just the right amount of aristocratic impatience. “But you contacted me, remember? Through channels that very few people know about.”
My fingers hovered over the keyboard, ready to initiate the stabilizer code deployment the moment we had confirmation. The office around me was a study in decay—water-stained ceiling tiles, peeling paint, the lingering smell of mold and dust. But I wouldn’t be here long.
I wished I could see what was going on in the warehouse, rather than just hear.
I wasn’t entirely sure where everyone else on Ty’s team was positioned.
He’d wanted to be right next to Ethan during the buy, ready to provide immediate backup, but that wasn’t possible.
Someone might recognize him from the earlier incidents.
So instead, Ethan was walking into that warehouse essentially alone while the rest of the team maintained overwatch positions.
The thought made my stomach twist into knots.
Donovan shifted in the hallway just outside my door—I could hear the soft scrape of his boots against the gritty floor.
Ty had assigned his brother as my personal protection, and Donovan had taken the assignment seriously, checking the building’s entry points every fifteen minutes like clockwork.
He didn’t say much, but this wasn’t the time for chitchat anyway.
“Mr. Volkov.” A new voice, professional but cautious, came on the comms. American accent with a hint of something else underneath. Military background, maybe. “You’ll forgive our caution. The item you’re interested in purchasing is…unique.”
“Unique items require unique prices,” Ethan responded smoothly. “Fifteen million, as discussed. Half now, half on delivery.”
My hands trembled slightly as I pulled up the quantum signature detection program. If they actually had the Cascade Protocol with them, it would show a very specific electromagnetic pattern—quantum entanglement created a signature as unique as a fingerprint.
But what if this went wrong? What if they saw through Ethan’s cover? The FBI had uncorrupted agents positioned around the perimeter, George had assured us of that, but they were hanging back to avoid spooking the sellers. By the time they could move in, Ty and Ethan and the others could already be—
No. I couldn’t think like that.
“You understand what you’re purchasing?” the seller asked through the comms. “This isn’t some simple malware or ransomware variant.”
“I’m aware,” Ethan said dryly. “The ability to weaponize lithium-ion batteries on a massive scale. Every phone, laptop, electric vehicle becomes a potential bomb. The destabilization possibilities are…extensive.”
My stomach turned. Hearing it laid out so clinically, the sheer scope of destruction the Cascade Protocol could cause, made everything we’d been through worth it. This had to work.
The quantum signature detection program suddenly lit up, lines of data cascading down my screen. There it was—the unique electromagnetic pattern that could only come from the specific quantum entanglement matrix I’d designed.
They’d brought it. This was about to be over.
Through the comms, more shuffling, footsteps moving across concrete. Then Ethan’s voice, clear and carrying that note of satisfaction that meant everything was proceeding according to plan. “Everything looks good.”
“Charlotte,” Ty whispered.
That was my signal.
My fingers flew across the keyboard, initiating the stabilizer code deployment sequence.
Lines of code flashed across the screen as the program went live, reaching out through quantum entanglement to find its target.
The Cascade Protocol might be in a warehouse two hundred meters away, but at the quantum level, distance was meaningless.
The progress bar began its crawl across my screen. Ten percent. Twenty.
Come on, come on…
Thirty percent. Forty.
Through the comms, I heard Ethan continuing his performance, discussing payment methods and keeping the sellers focused on him rather than the device that was being fundamentally altered at the quantum level.
Fifty percent. Sixty.
My heart hammered against my ribs. This was it. Everything we’d worked for, everything we’d sacrificed, came down to these moments.
Seventy. Eighty.
“Mr. Volkov, the payment confirmation should be—” the seller started.
Ninety.
“Momentarily,” Ethan assured him. “Large transfers take time to—”
One hundred percent.
The screen flashed green. STABILIZER CODE DEPLOYED. QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT LOCKED. FREQUENCY PATTERNS ALIGNED.
It was done. The Cascade Protocol was neutralized.
“Deployment complete.” I managed to keep my voice from shaking as I said it.
“Roger,” Ty whispered.
Relief flooded through me so intensely my hands shook. We’d done it. The weapon that could have killed millions was now nothing more than an expensive paperweight. I started to turn toward the door, wanting to make sure Donovan had heard me.
And honestly, just wanting assurance from him off comms that everything was going to be okay. I slid the communication unit off my head and set it on the desk.
Then I froze as I heard a voice from the hallway, muffled but recognizable. A voice that shouldn’t be here, couldn’t be here.
“Please don’t shoot me. Please! You’re Donovan, right? I’m Darcy Giglio from Vertex! I have critical information about the Cascade Protocol—there’s a fail-safe Charlotte doesn’t know about!”
Darcy? Here? What fail-safe? Oh my God, had I missed something? She must have found some critical detail I’d missed. If there was a fail-safe I didn’t know about, we needed that information immediately.
“Darcy?” I called out, already moving toward the door. “What are you doing here?”
I rushed into the hallway, ready to tell Donovan not to hurt her, that she was a friend, that she was here to help—
The world tilted.
Donovan was on the floor, crumpled against the wall like a discarded doll. Blood pooled beneath his head, dark and spreading across the dirty concrete. Two armed men flanked Darcy, and one was wiping blood off the butt of his gun with casual ease.
For one crystallizing second, my brain tried to make sense of what I was seeing. They’d taken Darcy hostage. They’d forced her to call out to me. They’d—
But no.
Darcy stood between the armed men comfortably, no restraints, no fear in her posture. Her expression as she looked at me wasn’t scared or desperate.
It was cold. Calculating.
Almost disappointed.
The conclusion hit me with devastating clarity, the words scraping past the sudden desert of my throat.
“You’re the traitor.”
The words came out broken, disbelieving even as I said them. Even as all the pieces suddenly clicked into place with horrible clarity. Access to my work. Knowledge of the Cascade Protocol’s capabilities. The ability to embed tracking software without suspicion.
I needed to warn Ty, but I’d left the comms unit at the desk.
Darcy stepped toward me, and one of her men raised his gun to point directly at my chest. Her lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.
“There’s that brilliant mind finally catching up.
” She glanced past me toward the open office door, taking in my setup with interest. “Though I’m disappointed it took you this long.
All those late-night conversations about your work, all those times I helped you debug code, and you never once suspected. ”
My voice cracked, raw with betrayal. “You were my friend. My only friend. Before any of this started, before the Cascade Protocol—”
“Before the Cascade Protocol, you were just another brilliant scientist wasting her gifts on government contracts and ethical restrictions.” Darcy’s tone hardened. “But the Cascade Protocol? That changed everything. Do you remember how hard I tried to talk you out of giving it to the FBI?”
The memory surfaced with painful clarity. Darcy in my office six months ago, passionate and persuasive. We could sell off pieces of the technology, Charlotte. Not the weapon itself, just components. We’d be billionaires. We’d never have to worry about funding or bureaucracy again.
“I told you then it would come at the cost of people’s lives,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
“And I told you that was a price worth paying.” She gestured at my laptop. “But you’re too late anyway. I know you, Charlotte. I know that self-satisfied look you get when you solve something. You’ve already deployed your stabilizer code, haven’t you? Neutralized the Cascade Protocol?”
There was no point in denying it. “Yes. It’s done. The Protocol is useless now.”
Darcy laughed—actually laughed—and the sound was like glass breaking.
“Oh, Charlotte. Brilliant, naive Charlotte.” She shook her head with what looked like genuine amusement. “Do you really think I don’t know you can reverse it? The same quantum entanglement that let you neutralize it can reactivate it. You’re going to undo what you just did.”
She was right; it could be reversed, and I was the only one who could do it. My mind raced even as my chest felt hollow, carved out by betrayal. I needed to stall, needed to signal Ty, needed—
“All those times you comforted me when experiments failed…” The words came out small, pathetic, but I couldn’t stop them. “When I was frustrated or exhausted or ready to give up and you encouraged me. When we talked about personal stuff. Was any of it real?”
For just a moment, something flickered across Darcy’s face. Her expression softened fractionally, almost imperceptibly.
“You needed a friend. I needed information.” She shrugged, the movement elegant and dismissive. “We both got what we wanted.”