Chapter 32: The Weight of Choice
The files took six minutes to upload.
Six minutes where every second felt like a lifetime.
Cyan's fingers hovered over the final command, sweat cooling on his palms as Emberlight firewalls slammed against their defenses. Red warnings bloomed across the screens like wounds.
"Thirty percent packet loss," Cyan muttered. "If they breach now—"
"They won't," Mira said softly.
Not because she was certain.
Because she chose to be.
The transmission burst outward—archives long buried, footage erased, experiment logs stamped SERAPH PROJECT spilling into the public net. Faces of children. Medical tables. Authorization codes signed by Adrien Vale himself.
The world watched.
Across the city, drones faltered mid-air, commands conflicting as public systems absorbed the truth. Protests ignited within minutes. Employees walked out. Soldiers hesitated.
Truth had weight.
And it was crushing.
"They're splitting," Cyan said, eyes wide. "Internal channels—Emberlight operatives are refusing orders."
But not all.
A new alert pulsed—black priority.
"They've activated the Fail-Safe," Cyan whispered. "Subject recall protocol. Anyone tagged… they'll force neural shutdown."
Mira's breath caught.
"That will kill them."
Silence fell between them, heavy and final.
Cyan looked at her. "If we push further, we save the many—but lose the few who can't break free in time."
Mira closed her eyes.
For the first time since Emberlight, the choice wasn't taken from her.
She opened them again, resolve burning steady.
"We don't choose who deserves to live," she said. "We give them a chance."
Cyan nodded.
He hit execute.
The system screamed.
And somewhere, the first Subject broke free.