Chapter 10: Trigger Protocols
947 Words
Rhea didn’t speak when Nikolai handed her the flash drive.
He didn’t either.
They both knew—whatever was on it would redraw the lines.
Between truth and fiction.
Between loyalty and betrayal.
Between her and Caspian.
She slid the drive into her encrypted terminal, fingers steady, even as her chest tightened.
The screen flickered, scanned, and opened a single, unmarked video file.
Timestamp: Two years ago.
Location: ValeTech R&D – Sub-Level C.
The footage was grainy—security cam quality. Her father stood in the center of a cold lab, sterile light spilling down from above. Interface panels glowed around him. He was pacing, agitated.
“No. I won’t scrub it,” he said—his voice clearer than she expected. “That code wasn’t a test. It was deployment-ready. You knew that.”
Offscreen, a calm voice replied:
“I knew it had to be stopped.”
Rhea’s breath stilled.
Caspian.
Her father’s face looked older than she remembered. Not aged—worn. Not by time, but by knowing.
“You buried the report,” he snapped. “Erased every reference. We had whistleblower protections—”
Caspian interrupted. “You were flagged as unstable.”
A bitter laugh.
“You made me unstable. You erased everything I stood for, and then called me compromised.”
He walked closer to the edge of the frame.
Caspian appeared—partially. Dressed in black. Hands folded behind him like a man observing the wreckage of something he’d ordered destroyed.
“Leave the facility,” he said. “Now.”
The footage flickered—interference. When it returned, her father sat slumped against the far wall.
He looked up.
Straight into the camera.
“Rhea,” he said.
Her chest locked.
“If they find you digging, they’ll erase you too.”
The feed cut.
Silence fell.
Heavier than grief.
Heavier than rage.
Nikolai leaned back, arms crossed.
“You wanted answers,” he said softly. “That was the cleanest one I could find.”
Rhea turned toward him.
“You kept this from Caspian?”
“I think he knew it existed.” A pause. “I don’t think he knows it still exists.”
“Why give it to me now?”
He met her gaze. Grim. Unflinching.
“Because there’s a line between empire and rot. And my brother’s walking it blind.”
The message came thirty minutes later.
FROM: Caspian Vale
SUBJECT: My Office. Now.
Rhea closed the file.
Wiped the system.
And walked out with her pulse steady—but her mind burning.
His office was empty when she arrived.
The city glowed behind the glass wall like a hive of fire. Caspian stood at the bar cart, pouring whiskey without looking at her.
“You’ve been accessing restricted systems,” he said.
Not a question.
“I’ve been reading history,” she replied. “Apparently that’s illegal now.”
He turned and held out a glass.
She didn’t take it.
“Curiosity has limits,” he said.
“So does silence.”
Their eyes met. The air between them felt wired.
“You don’t know what you’re walking into,” he said.
“Then explain it.”
“I don’t explain things I can’t protect you from.”
Her voice dropped. “Then stop pretending you’re trying.”
A long silence stretched between them.
Then he moved to his desk, opened a drawer, and slid a folder across the table.
Aeneas Audit.
“Uncensored access,” he said. “You want the truth? Take it.”
“Why?”
His gaze didn’t flinch. “Because if you’re going to destroy me, I’d rather it be with the whole truth than half of one.”
She picked up the folder.
“You think this is control,” she said.
“No.” He nodded. “This is permission.”
Back in her office, the file opened a labyrinth.
Project Aeneas wasn’t a project.
It was a program.
Multi-agency. Privately funded. Long-term.
Three branches:
Predictive defense modeling
Digital weaponization of surveillance AI
Protocol-level erasure
That last one stopped her cold.
Contingency Protocol: Trigger Erasure – Status: Armed
No explanation. No notes. Just an executable string of code. Ready.
She decrypted the metadata.
Trigger Target: Internal Asset
Risk Level: Red
Subject: RHEA ESQUIVEL
Her hands didn’t shake. But something in her spine went still.
They had planned for her. Before she even stepped into the building.
Aeneas wasn’t just a mission.
She was the failsafe.
Elle’s voice came in over an encrypted channel.
“You need to move. Now.”
“What happened?”
“Someone tried to verify your background. NBI database sync. Your name lit up two agencies.”
Rhea stared at the trigger file. “They know.”
“They knew the moment you challenged a VP in front of a room of sharks,” Elle said. “But now? They’re getting ready to bury you.”
---
Rhea didn’t sleep that night.
She printed the trigger code.
Encrypted it twice.
Locked it in a fire-safe, along with the video of her father.
One copy for herself.
One for release—if she didn’t make it through this.
The next morning, she walked into Caspian’s office without knocking.
He looked up.
Still. Guarded.
“I read the audit,” she said.
“And?”
“You knew I was a risk.”
“I knew you were necessary.”
She placed a sealed envelope on his desk.
He studied it.
“What is it?”
“My insurance.”
And then she walked out.
No words.
No permission.
Just the sound of a war beginning quietly in a glass building.
- Writer
