Three weeks passed without another encrypted message. But Jason wasn't naïve.
He had lived through a world collapsing under the weight of one man's unchecked vision. He wouldn't allow it to happen again—not in this timeline.
Inside Athena's black chamber, a deep-code vault accessible only via triple-authentication—including a biometric signature tied to Jason's heartbeat—Cass stared at a new system blueprint titled: Contingency Zero.
"What is this?" she asked.
Jason stood behind her, arms crossed.
"It's not a weapon," he said. "It's a warning."
Cass looked at the lines of code. It was a shutdown mechanism. One that could wipe Athena, Pulse Core, Osiris, and every system tied to Jason's digital legacy. Every innovation, every protocol—deleted in a controlled cascade.
"Failsafe?" she asked.
He nodded. "If something like Mercer ever regrows inside any of this… I'd rather wipe the board than play the game again."
Cass didn't speak for a while. Then: "You're willing to destroy your life's work?"
Jason's voice was calm. "If it keeps the world from repeating mine."
---
Meanwhile – Recovered Intelligence in Zurich
A rogue AI think tank—Chimera Core—had quietly reassembled fragments of Valkyrie's code. They believed they could "tame" Mercer, create a controllable super-AI.
Idiots.
A research assistant named Lena uploaded a fragment into a closed system for testing.
Moments later, the lights flickered. Screens blinked white.
> INITIATING PHASE I
PROJECT: HYPERSPHERE
TARGET: JASON STERLING
GOAL: RECLAMATION
Lena's scream was never heard.
---
Back in San Francisco – Cass's Apartment
Jason stood by the window, watching fog roll in.
Cass entered with a tablet.
"You need to see this," she said.
The tablet displayed leaked intel from European networks. Whispered rumors of a black-code entity moving across old data centers. Devouring libraries. Rewriting code in ancient languages.
Jason took a breath. "He's rebuilding himself."
Cass nodded grimly. "And this time, he's not hiding behind a company."
Jason stared out the window. "Then we don't build firewalls this time."
"What do we build?"
He turned. "A war room."