KNOX’S POV

The dead man’s trigger first. I enter Logan’s code into the server interface — the alphanumeric sequence, exactly as he recited it in the storage room with that smile I still can’t decode.

The system prompts for confirmation. I confirm. The screen flashes once, a progress bar runs, and then a single line of text:

DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOL DEACTIVATED. TRIGGER OFFLINE.

The kill switch is dead.

Ember exhales beside me. I didn’t realise she’d been holding her breath.

I pull out the diagnostic device Nathaniel gave me.

Military-grade, designed for intelligence operations — it scans for duplication signatures, verifies whether data has been copied or transferred to external devices,...