The digital clock mounted above Judge Harrison’s mahogany bench seemed to mock me, its glowing red numbers bleeding away the seconds.

Carney nodded slowly. “Sterling was the primary oversight chairman who pushed through the foreign defense integration act twelve years ago. When your father discovered that Sterling was planning to use Titan’s next-gen tech to supply black-ops proxy wars, Sterling threatened your family. Your father sent you into Kandar not just as a data specialist—he sent you as an insurance policy, carrying the only unencrypted master key to the back-door code.”

The memories of that day in Kandar rushed back—not as a blur of dust and fire, but as a calculated military assassination attempt disguised as a random insurgent ambush.

Commander Carney hadn't just rescued me because he was a good officer. He had rescued me because I was holding the key that could bring down a sitting United States Senator.

“And now?” I asked, my voice steady, the cold discipline of a trained operator taking absolute control over my emotions. “Now that I’m back, and the DOD has seized the primary server logs... Sterling knows we have the key.”

“Sterling already knows,” Carney said, his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out, glanced at the encrypted screen, and his expression hardened into stone. “In fact, he just filed an emergency injunction through a federal judge in Washington, demanding that the Department of Defense immediately transfer all seized Titan assets to a congressional oversight committee—headed by none other than his own subcommittee.”

I let out a cold, humorless laugh.

“He thinks he can seize the evidence before the Inspector General can unseal it.”

“He has forty-eight hours before the grand jury convenes,” Carney replied, looking at me with absolute, unwavering resolve. “After that, federal immunity protects no one. But in forty-eight hours, a lot of things can happen in the dark.”

“Then we don't wait for forty-eight hours,” I said, walking over to the coat rack and picking up my tactical jacket. “We give the Senator exactly what he’s asking for.”

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