Chapter 12 - THE RELEASE
Every screen inside Fort Halden came alive.
Upload progress bars appeared.
Five percent.
Seven.
Nine.
Rebecca fired at the nearest server.
The bullet shattered a monitor but did nothing to the transfer.
Captain Cole’s team moved.
Rebecca dragged Marcus backward.
Two Sentinel guards opened fire from the upper corridor.
Agents returned fire.
Lisa dropped behind a concrete partition with Daniel.
Ryan was pulled behind another barrier.
Claire crawled toward the control terminal.
The upload reached sixteen percent.
Rebecca screamed.
“Stop it.”
Claire shouted back.
“You can’t.”
Rebecca knew she was right.
The failsafe was not sending data from one server.
It was waking dormant copies distributed across dozens of systems.
James had designed it so Sentinel could never erase itself once exposure began.
The network was becoming evidence against its own members.
Twenty-three percent.
Marcus broke free for half a second.
Rebecca struck him and tried dragging him toward a side tunnel.
Ryan saw it.
“Dad.”
He ran.
Captain Cole shouted for him to stop.
Ryan ignored him.
He reached Marcus just as Rebecca fired.
The shot hit the concrete beside Ryan’s head.
Daniel rushed forward and tackled one of Rebecca’s guards.
Lisa saw the Orion prototype slide across the floor.
She moved before thinking.
Her ribs burned.
She grabbed the device.
Rebecca saw her.
For the first time, fear appeared on her mother’s face.
“Lisa.”
Lisa backed toward Cole’s team.
Rebecca pointed the gun.
“You don’t understand what you’re releasing.”
“I understand enough.”
“Governments will fall.”
“Then maybe they shouldn’t have built themselves on crimes.”
“You sound like your father.”
“Good.”
Forty-one percent.
Rebecca lowered the weapon slightly.
Then she changed tactics.
“You think James is innocent?”
Lisa hesitated.
Rebecca smiled.
“He built the system.”
“He hid transactions.”
“He protected officers.”
“He helped Sentinel survive for years before becoming frightened of what he created.”
Daniel shouted.
“She’s lying.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Ask him.”
That hesitation was all Rebecca needed.
She fired at a pipe overhead.
Steam exploded into the corridor.
Visibility disappeared.
When it cleared, Rebecca was gone.
So was Marcus.
Ryan lay unconscious near the tunnel entrance.
The upload continued.
Fifty-eight percent.
Captain Cole ordered teams after Rebecca.
Lisa looked at Claire.
“Is my father guilty?”
Claire did not answer quickly enough.
Lisa felt the next betrayal approaching.
“How guilty?”
Claire finally said.
“He helped build the laundering architecture.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You told me he tried to stop it.”
“He did.”
“When?”
Claire’s voice dropped.
“After eleven years.”
Lisa closed her eyes.
Her father had not been a hero from the beginning.
He had been part of Sentinel.
He simply became a whistleblower later.
Sixty-six percent.
Lisa understood why Rebecca had kept James alive.
Not love.
Not revenge.
Insurance.
If Sentinel was exposed, James would fall with everyone else.
But James had triggered the release anyway.
He had chosen accountability.
That mattered.
Maybe not enough to erase the past.
But enough to change what came next.
Captain Cole returned.
“There’s a vehicle tunnel.”
“They escaped.”
Lisa looked at Ryan.
A medic was helping him sit up.
His first question was about Marcus.
Cole shook his head.
“Gone.”
Ryan looked toward Lisa.
“You have to help me find him.”
Lisa stared at the man she had called her husband.
Her half-brother.
Her betrayer.
“No.”
Ryan’s expression broke.
Lisa continued.
“I will help stop Rebecca.”
“If Marcus is saved in the process, good.”
“But I’m done sacrificing myself for your family.”
Ryan looked down.
Then Noah called through the secure line.
The upload had reached ninety-four percent.
Federal raids had already begun across five states.
Three former generals had been detained.
Two defense executives had resigned.
A senator’s office had been sealed.
Sentinel was collapsing.
Then Noah’s voice changed.
“Lisa.”
“What?”
“Someone inserted a second package into the release.”
Lisa looked at Claire.
Claire shook her head.
“Not me.”
Noah continued.
“It contains Bennett Cyber Defense documents.”
Lisa went cold.
“What documents?”
“Fabricated contracts.”
“Bribery records.”
“Foreign transfers.”
“All signed with your digital certificate.”
May you like
Rebecca had prepared one final poison pill.
If Sentinel fell, Lisa would fall beside it.
