Maia's pov“All channels are open.”The words come from the ceiling, flat and wrong.I freeze with my hand still wrapped around Kael’s wrist. He looks at me, sharp and alert, already reading the shift in my face.“Say that again,” he says.“I didn’t say it,” I reply.The room trembles. Not violently. Not yet. Screens along the walls flicker awake one by one, no longer showing diagnostics or schematics, but faces. Thousands of them. Millions. Homes, streets, transit cars, offices. People staring back at us in real time.Eli swears. Loud. “That’s a public feed.”Kael’s grip tightens. “How public?”“All of it,” Eli says. “Every node. Every relay. There’s no filter.”My pulse spikes. I step forward without thinking.“Who opened it?” Kael asks.I already know.“I did,” I say.He turns to me sharply. “Maia.”“I didn’t mean to,” I add, but even as I say it, I feel the lie collapse. I did not stop it. I felt the lock break and I let it happen.A woman appears on one of the screens. She is cry
Last Updated : 2025-12-25 Read more