25. Blake
TWENTY-FIVE
Blake
The ready room door swings open under my touch, the familiar click of the latch echoing in the sudden silence. Every eye turns to me, with disappointment and something harder to define.
Ethan stands at the head of the table, his posture rigid. “Glad you could join us, Blake.”
The sarcasm in his voice is unmistakable. My throat tightens as I sit, the weight of their stares pressing down on me like a physical force.
Mitzy’s fingers dance across her keyboard, the soft tapping a counterpoint to the tension thrumming through the air. The large screen at the front of the room flickers to life, displaying a map of Guardian HQ crisscrossed with a web of colored lines.
“We’ve been tracking your badge’s movements,” Mitzy’s eyes never leave the screen. “At first, just for the day it went missing, but…”
“But what?” I glance around the table with trepidation.
“The activity continues well past that initial 24-hour period.” Mitzy’s fingers dance across the keyboard, and the display shifts. My stomach drops as the timeline extends beyond the day my badge went missing .
“That’s impossible.” I lean forward, squinting at the screen. “I’ve had my badge with me every day since.”
“Then who’s been accessing restricted areas with your credentials?” Sam’s sharp gaze cuts through the room.
A ripple of murmurs sweeps through everyone gathered. I scan the data, my heart racing as her movements tell a disturbing story. Server rooms, restricted areas, places I’ve never even seen.
“This can’t be right.” I point to a specific time stamp. “It shows my badge accessing the server room last Tuesday at 1400 hours, but I was at the firing range with Gabe.”
Gabe’s usual smirk is replaced by a grimace. “He’s right. We were working on his grouping all afternoon.”
Another inconsistency catches my eye. “And here, Wednesday at 0900. The log shows me entering the tech lab, but I was in the gym with Walt.”
“Yeah, I remember. You were bitching about that new leg press machine.” Walt’s gravelly voice confirms,
“There’s more,” Mitzy interjects, highlighting another section. “Your badge was used to access The Guardian Grind’s back office at 2200 hours last night, well after closing.”
The implications hit me like a ton of bricks.
“She cloned it.” Ethan’s voice is tight, barely controlled anger simmering beneath the surface. “Somehow, Sophia made a copy of your badge.”
The words hang in the air, heavy with accusation. My fingers dig into the arms of my chair, the leather creaking in protest.
“How is that possible?”
Mitzy pulls up schematics and lines of code. “It’s not easy, but with the right access and knowledge—it’s doable. Especially if she had help.”
“Help? How would she have had any help?”
The map on the screen shifts again, now showing two distinct sets of movements—mine and Sophia’s. Some overlap, others diverge wildly. The branching paths seem to mock me, a visual representation of the trust I’ve misplaced.
“We need to separate your actual movements from Sophia’s.” Sam’s deep voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts. “Blake, we need you to go through your whereabouts step by step.”
Sophia’s betrayal settles over me like a lead weight. I struggle to reconcile the woman I love with these actions. The soft smile that greeted me each morning, the warmth of her body against mine at night—were they all just part of her cover?
For the next hour, I painstakingly identify my locations. The gym, the cafeteria, mission briefings—all normal Guardian activities. But Sophia’s movements tell a different story. Server rooms, restricted areas, places I’m not sure where they’re at. With each revelation, the knot in my stomach tightens.
“How did none of us notice this?” Walt’s question breaks the tense silence that’s fallen over the room. “Wouldn’t there be an alert if our badges were used simultaneously in two separate locations?”
Mitzy pulls up a new screen. “That’s where it gets interesting. The system did flag these discrepancies, but…”
“But what?” Ethan’s voice is sharp, and his patience is wearing thin.
Mitzy takes a deep breath, her eyes darting nervously around the room. “The alerts were suppressed.”
A collective gasp ripples through the room. My entire body goes rigid, every muscle tensing as the implications of her words sink in.
“There’s more,” Mitzy says, her voice cutting through my thoughts.
The room falls silent as Mitzy explains Protocol Zero and its true purpose.
Unease washes over me.
“How long have you been planning for this? And why weren’t we informed?” I grind out the words, barely keeping my rising anger in check.
“We needed to monitor the activity,” Mitzy continues, her voice steady despite the rising tension. “To let the breach run its course so we could trace it back to the source. If we’d acted immediately, we might have spooked them and lost our chance to uncover the full extent of the infiltration.”
The rage that’s been simmering inside me suddenly boils over. I slam my hands on the table, the sharp crack echoing through the room. “You knew? You knew, and you did nothing?”
Mitzy flinches at my outburst but holds her ground. “Blake, we had to?—”
“No.” I cut her off, my voice raw with emotion. “If you’d acted immediately, we could have caught Sophia. She wouldn’t be missing now. She wouldn’t be in danger.”
The room falls silent. My words hang heavy in the air. Ethan steps forward, his hand on my shoulder, but I shrug it off.
“Blake, I understand you’re upset, but?—”
“Upset?” I laugh, the sound harsh and bitter. “Upset doesn’t begin to cover it. You used her as bait. You put her in danger. And for what? To catch Malfor? Was it worth it?”
The silence that follows is deafening. I look around the room at the faces of people I’ve trusted with my life, and for the first time, I feel like a stranger among them.
“We had no choice.” Forest’s deep voice breaks the silence. “The risk was too great. If Malfor succeeded in infiltrating us undetected, the consequences would be catastrophic.”
I face him, my anger giving way to a bone-deep weariness. “And what about the consequences for Sophia? What about her life?”
The room erupts in a cacophony of voices. Confusion, anger, and disbelief war for dominance.
No one has an answer for that. As the reality of our situation settles over the room, I can’t help but wonder: in our quest to save the world, have we lost sight of the individuals we’re meant to protect?
“What the hell, Mitzy?” Gabe’s voice rises above the rest. “You’re telling us you knew this was coming?”
“Yes and no,” Mitzy cuts through the rising tension, making things even more unclear. She pulls up a new screen, lines of code scrolling faster than I can follow. “We implemented a Trojan Horse when we suspected a breach might occur. It’s part of Protocol Zero.”
My blood runs cold as the pieces click into place. “You used us as bait,” I growl, my fists clenching at my sides. “You used Sophia as bait.”
Mitzy holds up her hands, her eyes wide. “It’s not like that. We’ve been expecting Malfor to make a move like this for months. We never suspected it would be Sophia, but we had to be prepared for the eventuality.”
The anger bubbling in my chest threatens to overflow. “So you just let it happen? You let her walk into this trap?”
“We didn’t know it would be her,” Mitzy shouts back.
Before I can respond, a booming voice cuts through the chaos.
“Enough.” Forest steps forward, his imposing frame casting a shadow across the table. The room falls silent under his stern gaze.
“The decision to keep the true intent of Protocol Zero secret was mine,” Forest says, his voice leaving no room for argument. “We couldn’t risk tipping our hand. If Malfor suspected we were onto him, we’d lose our best chance at bringing him down.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Ethan’s voice is tight with controlled anger, “we’re supposed to be a team. You cut us out of the loop.”
Forest’s expression softens slightly. “I know, and I didn’t make that decision lightly. But sometimes, hard choices must be made for the greater good.”
The weight of his words settles over the room. I want to argue, to rage against the injustice of it all. But a small part of me understands the logic, even as it tears me apart.
“So what now?” I ask, my voice hoarse with emotion. “How do we find Sophia?”
Forest’s gaze meets mine, a mix of sympathy and determination in his eyes. “We use every tool at our disposal. The Trojan Horse, the badge data, everything. We find Sophia, stop Malfor, and end this once and for all.”