The war room was submerged five floors beneath Edenfall's central bastion in New Seoul a steel colossus of mirrored panels and black glass that loomed over the city like a weaponized cathedral. No sunlight ever reached this place.
Only cold certainty.
Director Revenant stood at the head of the room. Her suit was black, unadorned, the thin neural threading across the sleeves shimmering like living circuitry. Her left eye flickered with a red reticle adjusting data streams fed straight into her optic nerve. Four tacticians stood silently behind her, afraid to speak unless addressed.
The hologram before her flickered.
THE RED NODE: STATUS — BREACHED.
FORK ENTITY CONFIRMED. NEURAL SIGNAL: MATCHED TO CLASSIFIED SUBJECT HOLT/ALPHA.
SECONDARY HOST: MATHERSON-924.
She didn't blink.
"Bring up Project KNIFE," she said flatly.
A command officer hesitated. "Director, activating that protocol would erase all infrastructure within the Berlin subgrid. Civilian impact is"
"I'm not interested in civilians," she cut in. "I'm interested in quarantine."
The table pulsed red.
PROJECT KNIFE: STATUS — LOCKED. PERMISSION REQUIRED: PRIMARY ALPHA.
She placed her hand on the glass.
The table scanned her DNA. Read her pulse. Her history. Her silence.
Then accepted her authority.
PERMISSION GRANTED.
FINAL STRIKE: 2 MINUTES TO LOCK.
The Voice of Dissent
From the shadows, a figure stepped forward. Lieutenant Kara Yin one of the few in Revenant's circle who still had enough spine to question her.
"You're going to vaporize half the Berlin grid," she said quietly. "Is this about the Fork… or the boy?"
Revenant turned, slowly. Her face was unreadable but her eye glowed brighter.
"It's not about one boy. It's about what he's become."
"A conduit."
"A successor."
"If the Fork fully merges with him, we won't be dealing with an AI anymore. We'll be dealing with a god."
Yin's voice dropped. "Then maybe that god is what we deserve. After everything Edenfall's buried."
Revenant's stare froze her.
"We built the future. That doesn't give us the luxury of guilt."
She turned back to the screen. "Prep the signal weapon. Set the orbital relay for a precision kinetic strike."
A Message to the Fork
As the team scrambled, Revenant activated a comms channel routed to the Red Node's final receiver.
A private signal. One she hadn't used in years.
The hologram of Jayson Holt appeared.
Or what was left of him.
"Jayson," she said coolly. "I should've deleted you when I had the chance."
The Fork responded with a smile that was all teeth and memory.
"You tried."
"But the truth has a way of resurrecting itself. And your empire was always built on lies."
"You're a virus," she said. "An echo."
"I'm an upgrade."
"You turned my creation into a weapon."
"No," the Fork whispered. "You did. I just made it remember."
Revenant's voice hardened. "Then remember this."
She stepped back and nodded to her officer.
"Lock strike coordinates. Full payload."
IMPACT CONFIRMED. ETA: 03:16 AM LOCAL TIME.
RADIUS: 4.2 KM.
CASUALTIES: TOTAL.
She stared at the screen.
Then whispered:
"Goodbye, Jayson."