40. Evie
EVIE
The purge timer reaches four minutes, forty-one seconds.
Rook looks from the escape tunnel to Fathom.
“How long do you need?”
“Five minutes.”
“You have three.”
Fathom drops to his knees beside the vault server and begins working.
Cobra and Shark reinforce the barricade.
Falcon remains beside them, his injured arm pressed against his chest.
Caleb checks the tunnel.
I open the Chairman’s journal again.
The succession directive is filled with names, codes, and instructions, but the final pages are written in a different hand.
More hurried.
Less controlled.
One sentence appears beside a sketch of the bunker.
TRUST CAN BE STOLEN MORE EASILY THAN IDENTITY.
I turn another page.
A diagram shows the central command servers and a handwritten override sequence.
“Fathom.”
He doesn’t look away from his screen. “Busy.”
“I found the purge authorization.”
That gets his attention.
He moves beside me.
“Where?”
I show him the rotating sequence written in the margin.
His eyes widen.
“The Chairman left himself a back door.”
“He didn’t trust his successors.”
“He didn’t trust anyone.”
Fathom enters the first sequence.
The purge timer slows.
Three minutes, fifty seconds.
Then stops.
For one heartbeat.
A second authorization window opens.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Mac sees it.
Only the color leaves his face.
“What?” Rook asks.
“The executive succession system.”
“Can you access it?”
“Only senior members had authority.”
Evie searches the journal.
A folded document is hidden inside the back cover.
I pull it free.
Three signatures appear beneath its title.
EXECUTIVE EMERGENCY SUCCESSION ORDER.
Charles Whitmore.
Victor Kane.
Mac Stenson.
Mac stares at his name.
“I never signed this.”
Fathom examines the document. “The signature is authentic.”
“They must have taken it from another order.”
“No,” I say. “They didn’t need your permission. They needed the system to believe you had given it.”
Mac looks toward the command diagram.
“The Chairman planned for my return.”
“He planned for your obedience,” Caleb says.
Mac’s hand trembles as he reaches toward the screen.
“I don’t deserve this authority.”
Rook steps beside him.
“This isn’t about deserving it.”
Mac looks up.
“It’s about ending it.”
The timer resumes.
Two minutes, fifty-nine seconds.
Mac presses his palm to the scanner.
A white beam passes across his hand.
“Executive authority recognized.”
A second light scans his face.
“Successor credentials accepted.”
Fathom exhales.
“I’m in.”
The download begins.
The barricade explodes.
Concrete and steel fly into the vault.
Victor Kane steps through the breach.
His armor is blackened. Blood runs from the bullet wound in his arm.
Behind him, the remaining Inner Guard advances.
“No more running,” Victor says.
Mac moves in front of the server.
His fear is visible in the tremor of his hands.
But he doesn’t step aside.
“No.”
His voice strengthens.
“No more hiding.”
Rook raises his rifle.
“Evie, take the journal. Falcon, Shark—start moving the evidence through the tunnel.”
Falcon grabs the first bag.
Shark takes the second.
Cobra positions himself beside Rook.
Fathom watches the download.
Sixty-two percent.
Victor takes another step.
Mac looks toward the control-room passage behind the Warden.
“The download isn’t enough.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The files will remain vulnerable as long as the central servers control the purge.”
Fathom checks the network.
“He’s right.”
“How do we stop it?”
“From the control room,” Mac answers.
Rook looks toward Victor and the guards filling the breach.
“Can you get us there?”
“Yes.”
“Can you stop the purge?”
Mac watches the numbers climb.
Seventy-one percent.
“I can.”
His gaze shifts to the evidence moving into the escape tunnel.
“But someone has to keep the server connected long enough for the others to get out.”
Silence fills the vault.
The timer reaches two minutes, forty-eight seconds.
Mac steps closer to the terminal.
“I’ll stay.”