The moment Kane told me about the fail-safe, I felt like the ground beneath me had shifted.
A hidden algorithm—one capable of undoing the Overseers’ erasures.
It was the kind of revelation that clawed at the edges of my mind, demanding to be questioned, doubted, and analyzed. And yet, I couldn’t ignore the spark of something dangerously close to hope flickering inside me.
“There’s no way they wouldn’t have it buried deep,” I said, my voice coming out rough, uncertain. “If they built a backdoor into their system, they’d make sure no one could ever get to it.”
Kane crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. “That’s exactly what they did.”
She turned the tablet she was holding toward me, her fingers swiping across lines of encrypted data. “It’s housed in their Citadel. Not just any sec
