Chapter Thirty-Three — Ronan Already Knew the Program

The final instruction stayed on the screen.

ALL OTHER SURVIVORS ARE EXPENDABLE.

Nobody moved for several seconds.

Then Damian pulled the drive from the terminal.

“Copy completed?”

Cassian checked the device in his hand.

“Seventy-two percent.”

Damian swore.

Ronan looked toward the service elevator.

“How long before they get here?”

“Not long.”

I stared at the dark screen.

Expendable.

Lucian.

Damian.

Ronan.

Cassian.

Everyone except me.

I hated the distinction.

“Then we stop giving them easy targets.”

Ronan turned toward me.

“That is not a plan.”

“It is the beginning of one.”

“You are still the reason they are coming.”

“I am aware.”

“And they explicitly said not to damage you.”

“I read the message.”

“Which means they will take risks with everyone else.”

His voice had sharpened.

I looked at him.

“Then stop talking as though I am the only person worth protecting.”

Something changed in his expression.

He did not answer.

Damian glanced between us.

“There is another exit through the ventilation corridor.”

Cassian frowned.

“You expect four adults to crawl through ventilation?”

“No. I expect three adults and Ronan.”

Despite everything, I almost laughed.

Ronan did not.

“Where does it lead?”

“Parking level beneath the east annex.”

“Monitored?”

“Probably.”

“Then we assume compromised.”

Damian nodded.

“That is why we split.”

“No.”

The answer came from Ronan immediately.

Damian looked at him.

“You do not command me.”

“I do when your plan involves separating Adrian from me.”

There it was again.

The attachment.

The exact response Cradle had documented.

Damian noticed too.

His expression became wary.

I stepped between them.

“No one is splitting until we know what the other side expects.”

Ronan looked at me.

“They expect us together.”

“Exactly.”

“And your solution is?”

“Stop being predictable.”

Lucian crossed his arms.

“Meaning?”

I looked at Damian’s drive.

“Cradle knows where we are because it found the file.”

Damian nodded.

“Yes.”

“They also know we have the survival ledger.”

“Yes.”

“So they expect us to run with it.”

Ronan’s gaze sharpened.

“You want to leave it behind.”

“No.”

I looked at Cassian.

“I want them to think we did.”

Understanding entered his face.

“A decoy.”

“Exactly.”

Damian stared at me.

“You really were raised for boardrooms.”

“Unfortunately.”

Cassian removed a spare encrypted drive from his pocket.

“We clone a partial copy onto this one.”

Ronan looked at him.

“You carry spare encrypted drives?”

Cassian shrugged.

“I had an unusual childhood.”

Ronan gave him a flat look.

That almost made me smile again.

We worked quickly.

Damian created a damaged copy containing enough of the Cradle files to look genuine but not enough to expose the complete network.

He placed it inside the terminal.

Then Marcus’s voice came through Ronan’s earpiece.

“Movement on the upper floors.”

Ronan straightened.

“How many?”

“At least eight.”

“Armed?”

“Yes.”

Lucian looked toward the corridor.

“They are moving faster than usual.”

Damian’s face hardened.

“Because they know I am here.”

Ronan looked at him.

“You still matter that much?”

Damian laughed without humor.

“I was the first A-04. Cradle does not like unfinished experiments.”

I felt sick at how casually he said it.

Cassian finished the decoy.

“Done.”

Ronan checked his weapon.

“Then we move.”

I followed him toward the maintenance corridor.

Damian stayed behind for half a second.

I noticed.

“What?”

He looked at Ronan.

Then at me.

“There is something you should know before we leave.”

Ronan’s expression hardened.

“This is not the ideal time for another family secret.”

“No.”

Damian’s voice lowered.

“But if Cradle gets to say it first, it will destroy whatever trust exists between you.”

My pulse changed.

I looked at Ronan.

He had gone very still.

Damian noticed that too.

“You know.”

Ronan’s jaw tightened.

“Know what?”

Damian looked directly at him.

“You tell him.”

I stared at Ronan.

“Tell me what?”

His silence was immediate.

Wrong.

I felt something cold move through me.

“Ronan.”

He looked at Damian.

“That was not yours to reveal.”

Damian’s expression hardened.

“It became mine when you kept pretending you had never heard of Cradle.”

I stopped breathing.

The room seemed to shrink around us.

I looked at Ronan.

“You knew the name.”

He did not answer.

I stepped closer.

“You knew about Cradle before tonight.”

His face changed.

Barely.

Enough.

My stomach dropped.

“How long?”

“Adrian.”

“How long?”

Cassian looked away.

Lucian went completely still.

Damian watched his brother with no sympathy.

Ronan finally spoke.

“Years.”

The word cut deeper than I expected.

I stared at him.

“You stood beside me while I discovered my entire life was built around that program.”

“I did not know your connection to it.”

“But you knew it existed.”

“Yes.”

I laughed softly.

Not because anything was funny.

Because if I did not laugh, I might have broken something.

“You kept asking me to trust you.”

“I know.”

“You demanded my medical records.”

“Yes.”

“You accused my father of hiding information.”

“Yes.”

“And all that time, you were doing the same thing.”

His jaw tightened.

“I knew Cradle as a name connected to my family’s private biomedical holdings. I knew my father had forbidden me from investigating it.”

“That is more than nothing.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you lie?”

“Because the first time I heard O-17 tonight, I did not know whether telling you would help or make you think I was part of it.”

I stared at him.

“And now?”

“Now I know hiding it was a mistake.”

“That is convenient.”

“I know.”

My anger sharpened.

“Stop agreeing with me.”

His expression changed.

“Would you prefer another lie?”

The question hit hard.

I looked away.

Ronan stepped closer.

“I did investigate Cradle once.”

My attention returned immediately.

“When?”

“Four years ago.”

Damian’s face changed.

“You found the archive.”

Ronan looked at him.

“Part of it.”

My pulse quickened.

“What archive?”

Ronan reached inside his jacket and removed his phone.

He opened a hidden folder.

Old photographs.

Scanned contracts.

Research invoices.

Ashcroft authorization codes.

Then one image stopped me.

A file cover.

O-17 / A-04 MATCHING PROTOCOL

My blood went cold.

“You saw this.”

“Only the cover.”

“When?”

“Four years ago.”

“And you never thought the designation might mean a person?”

“No.”

I stared at him.

“Did you see my name?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Damian stepped closer.

“What else was in the archive?”

Ronan looked at him.

“One photograph.”

He swiped.

The image appeared.

Two boys standing outside a medical building.

One was Damian.

The other was Lucian.

Lucian’s face drained of color.

Ronan continued.

“The archive disappeared the next morning.”

Damian stared at him.

“Who knew you found it?”

Ronan’s expression darkened.

“My father.”

Silence.

Then Ronan looked at me.

“He told me Cradle was a failed fertility research project and that reopening it would destroy the family.”

I stared at him.

“And you believed him.”

“No.”

That answer surprised me.

“What did you do?”

“I copied what I could.”

He opened another file.

A list of transactions.

Dates.

Payments.

Names.

One payment had been made three days before the gala.

Recipient:

DANIEL KERR

My pulse stopped.

Ronan’s voice became cold.

“This is why I came to your event.”

I stared at him.

“You were not there for Northbridge.”

“No.”

“You came because you knew Daniel Kerr was connected to Vale.”

“Yes.”

The betrayal settled differently now.

Not complete.

But real.

I stepped back.

Ronan looked at me.

“Adrian.”

“Do not.”

He stopped.

For once, he obeyed without argument.

Then Damian’s phone vibrated.

He checked the screen.

His expression changed.

“They are here.”

The lights in the mechanical level went out.

Red emergency strips flickered on.

Footsteps sounded beyond the corridor.

Ronan raised his weapon.

I looked at him one last time.

“You and I are not finished.”

His eyes held mine.

“I know.”

Then a voice came through the building speaker.

Calm.

Artificial.

Familiar.

“Primary Match A-04.”

Ronan went still.

The voice continued.

“Your deception has been recorded.”

My blood turned cold.

Then:

“Subject O-17 has been informed.”

A pause.

“Trust degradation confirmed.”

Damian swore.

I understood immediately.

Cradle had wanted this.

The secret.

The timing.

The fracture.

Then the final announcement came.

“Replacement protocol authorized.”

Somewhere behind us, a door unlocked.

And Cassian whispered,

“They are not coming to retrieve Ronan anymore.”

I looked at him.

His face had gone pale.

“They are coming to make me take his place.”