Page 85 of Duty Compromised
“Charlotte—”
“Like your tactical analysis. You don’t have one response to every threat. You read the situation and adapt. The code needs to do the same thing. Read the battery’s state and apply the appropriate counter-frequency from a matrix of possibilities.”
My mind was already racing through the implementation. Parallel processing threads, each monitoring different chemical signatures, responding with targeted interference patterns…
“Ty, I need to go.” I was already moving toward the door. Ty, as if to prove my point, had already adapted to this new variable and was moving with me.
“I know how to finish the countermeasure.”
Chapter 25
Charlotte
The final parameter locked into place with a soft chime from my laptop, the wave function entanglement protocols finally aligning like puzzle pieces I’d been trying to fit together for days. I sat back in the desk chair, staring at the completed stabilizer code displayed across my screen. Every frequency calibration, every interference pattern, every deployment pathway—all of it finally harmonized into something that could actually work.
Voices carried from the living room where the Citadel team had spread tactical maps across every available surface. Jace’s voice crackled through a speaker, tinny but clear.
“Sight lines are shit in that area.” Logan’s voice, deeper than the others, carried a note of concern I hadn’t heard from him before. “Multiple entry points, limited cover. If this goes sideways, extraction’s going to be a bitch.”
“We’ve worked with worse.” Ty’s tone was calm, analytical. “Remember that clusterfuck in Caracas? We had three exit routes compromised and still made it out clean.”
“That was different. We had aerial support and a clear evac route.”
“We adapt,” Ty said. “Logan, you take overwatch from the northeast corner—best vantage point for the approach roads. I’ll handle the western perimeter with Ben.”
“What about the buyers’ vehicles?” Ethan asked. “They’ll probably come in hot with their own security.”
“Let them,” Ty replied. “More vehicles mean more disorder if we need to bug out. It’ll work in our favor.” A pause, then his voice shifted, more focused. “Jace, can you tap into the industrial complex’s security feeds? I want eyes on every entrance twenty minutes before showtime.”
“Already working on it,” Jace confirmed.
“Good. And the Volkov cover?” Ty continued. “Arms dealer out of Serbia, established presence on three different dark web markets. Has a documented grudge against NATO after they killed his brother in a bombing raid. The buyers won’t question it. Ethan’s got the ugly mug and the accent down perfect.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Ethan said dryly.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard, frozen by the weight of what I was hearing. These men—Ty’s team, his brothers in everything but blood—were walking into extreme danger based on a project I created. If the Stabilizer failed, if I’d miscalculated even one variable, they’d be facing armed terrorists with nothing but conventional weapons and whatever luck they could manufacture.
The laptop pinged softly, a notification I hadn’t seen in weeks popping up in the corner. An encrypted message through the old research backdoor server Darcy and I had set up years ago, back when we were debugging the first quantum encryption protocols. My heart stopped.
The message was simple, tentative. “Charlotte? Is that you? Your access signature just showed up on our old server. I don’t even know why I was checking. I just can’t believe you’re gone.”
I stared at the words, cursor blinking in the reply field. Darcy. My stomach twisted with equal parts relief and terror. How had she even known to look? Was someone monitoring this channel? The encryption was solid—we’d designed it ourselves—but after everything that had happened, could I trust any channel was truly secure?
Another message appeared before I could decide what to do.
“I can’t even tell you how much I’m hoping this is you. Alex said there was an accident, that you died in some sort of explosion. But I can’t make myself believe it. I can’t believe you’re gone. I can’t stop crying.”
My throat closed up. It was one thing to agree to the deception, another to see the actual impact on people I cared about.
I looked toward the doorway where Ty’s voice mixed with the others, discussing approach vectors and fields of fire. Every instinct screamed to ask him what to do, but I could hear the intensity of their planning session. Lives depended on them getting these details right.
My fingers moved across the keys before I could second-guess myself, typing carefully. “It’s me. I’m okay. Can’t explain everything right now.”
The response exploded across my screen in all caps, quintessentially Darcy. “OH MY GOD CHARLOTTE YOU’RE ALIVE! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!”
Messages flooded in as fast as I could read them, Darcy’s emotions pouring through the digital connection like a dam had burst. I caught fragments—explosion, accident, no body recovered—and my chest tightened. George had sold it well. Too well.
“What happened? Are you okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?”
