Back at Phoenix HQ, Camellia and Rachel greeted Sophie with tense faces.

“She was right,” Camellia said. “Mary funded five more sites like that. None of them ever appeared in Phoenix audits. She protected them with dummy foundations.”

“And now?” Sophie asked.

“They’re safe,” Rachel said. “But they’ve all been exposed in the smear leaks.”

Sophie turned toward the war room screen.

“Then we protect them in daylight now.”

That night, the Civilian Council met under emergency conditions.

Tempers flared. Debates turned into accusations.

One councilor — an education activist from India — slammed her screen in frustration.

“If Mary was running black ops charity networks, what else don’t we...