The courthouse smelled of wet marble and fear.

Violet stood in the lobby beneath the towering seal of the United States Department of Justice, her reflection fractured across the polished floor. Reporters waited beyond the metal detectors like vultures, cameras poised, the red lights of recording devices blinking like watchful eyes.

She gripped the strap of her bag tighter. Inside it, a single drive. The copy of the Eden Protocol files she’d recovered years ago — the ones she’d sworn never to open again.

Bryan stood beside her, his suit pressed but his face exhausted. The weight of an empire sat on his shoulders, yet his gaze never left her....