Jason stared at the frozen frame on the monitor.
Rohan's face.
His friend. His co-founder. His brother-in-arms.
Caught red-handed in the most secure room of the company, where Specter's source code was stored.
Cass stood behind him, arms folded, silent but furious. Naomi didn't say a word either—her expression unreadable.
"Run a trace," Jason finally said. "Where did he go after this?"
Naomi keyed in commands. "He took the elevator to B3. Underground garage. Left the building. Never came back."
Jason nodded grimly. "Start the Judas Protocol."
---
The Judas Protocol wasn't just security. It was a full-spectrum digital purge designed for betrayal contingencies.
Every access token tied to Rohan's ID was revoked.
All code he had contributed to in the last 60 days was flagged, airlocked, and manually audited by trusted engineers.
Their entire architecture was placed in "Red Light Mode," meaning nothing could be shipped or deployed until it passed integrity validation.
It was as if PulseCast had suffered a biological breach—and now the immune system was purging a virus.
---
But Jason wasn't just angry.
He was hurt.
Rohan had been there from the beginning. Back when Jason had nothing but an idea and a second chance at life. Rohan had believed in him when no one else had.
Why betray me now?
---
That night, a courier arrived at Jason's penthouse.
A box.
No return address.
Inside, a burner phone and a small cassette recorder. Jason played the tape.
Rohan's voice.
> "Jay… if you're hearing this, I'm probably dead. Or worse."
> "I didn't betray you. I infiltrated Valkyrie. It was the only way. They were on to us, and I had to give them just enough to buy us time."
> "I know I messed up. I touched Specter, yes. But only to plant a backdoor for you. Something they wouldn't detect, but you could use if everything goes to hell."
> "Look for the file named Nyx.dll. It's in the old sandbox you left running from your college days—'NeonDreams.' Yeah. I knew you'd forget about it."
> "I hope I'm wrong. But if I'm not… you're going to need a weapon."
---
Jason's heart pounded.
He rushed to an ancient drive in his home lab—a dusty backup tower he hadn't powered on in years.
It booted up with a nostalgic hum. He opened the sandbox folder.
There it was.
Nyx.dll
Hidden in plain sight.
Cass and Naomi were already on their way over. Jason didn't wait.
He ran the file.
A new interface bloomed on the screen, glowing deep blue. Unlike Specter's clean UI, this one was rough, raw—something only a rogue like Rohan would've built.
> "Nyx Activated. Awaiting Instructions."
---
"Welcome back, brother," Jason whispered.
And in that moment, he knew:
The war hadn't claimed Rohan yet.
But it would.
Unless Jason finished what they started.