The air in the cabin had been cleansed and packaged for a single purpose: to contain a sacrifice. The hum of the industrial generator, once a sound of necessary utility, now vibrated with the chilling promise of execution.
Eliza couldn't breathe. Her hands were still hovering over the terminal keys, fingers curled and locked. The picture on the screen…Julian's younger, kinder face—was a lie. The command below it….PLAN: INTERFACE & TERMINATE….was the truth.
She had spent years operating in a world where person and asset were interchangeable terms. She had rationalized every impossible choice, every betrayal, every silent order from Sterling, by telling herself that her hands were clean. She was the analyst, the planner, the protector of the Drive—the crucial data, the mission. She wasn't the killer.
Sterling had just called her bluff. He didn't give her an escape; he gave her the trigger. Julian took a slow step back from the metal table. His face was just blank—totally tired, but totally clear. He wasn't yelling. He wasn't pleading. He was simply stating the mechanism of his death."He didn't trust either of us to finish the loop," Julian said, his voice flat, drained of any emotion but acceptance. "He never intended for us to get to the extraction point. This isn't a staging area, Eliza. It's a guillotine. And he handed you the cord."He glanced at the scotch bottle on the high shelf. "The rations are for one person. The fuel for the generator is meant to last until only one person is left to use it. He built this for your survival, contingent on my failure."
Eliza didn't look at him. She was staring at the name on the screen:
DR. JULIAN KASPAR.
"It's a security measure," she insisted, her voice hollow, clinging to the only professional framework she had left. "It's recognizing your deep integration with the Link. It's flagging you as the source of the Link data, the potential threat if the hardware is compromised. It's a bad algorithm, Julian. I can override it."But she knew she was lying. Her fingers remained locked in the hover position, refusing to touch the keys. She knew the lock-down status she had seen earlier was real.
The system was running a priority sequence…a sequence that Sterling himself had coded into the Link's final-step operation years ago, long before she or Julian were ever involved. It was inescapable.
Julian took another step, putting his back against the rough, cold log wall. He spread his hands in a gesture of absolute surrender.
"Override what, Eliza? The fact that the Link itself exists inside my head? The Link isn't just data. It's an interface. And the only way to ensure the data is truly un-linkable and safe is to destroy the final connection point. That connection point is me."
The truth was a cold, physical presence in the room. He was the most secure storage medium Sterling had. To transfer the data, the original host—the source….had to be wiped out.
"But he needs the Drive," Eliza whispered, her eyes burning with angry confusion. "He needs the data in this device. If he kills the Host before extraction, the core could be corrupted. Why would he risk that?"Julian gave a tiny, bitter smile.
"Because he knew you would never let the Drive fall into the wrong hands. Not even his. He knew your loyalty wasn't to him. It was to the purity of the project. He trusted your self-preservation instinct to choose the data over the man."
He pushed off the wall and started moving toward her. Slow. Deliberate. Every movement was a test.
"You're the Operator, Eliza. It says so right there. You run the command, and the Link is terminated. The Drive is secured. You walk away with the data and the whiskey. You live."
He was three feet away. She could smell the cold, wet air on his jacket.
Julian's hand shot out, not at her, but at the main power cord for the terminal, a thick line connected to the table.
The Fight
Eliza reacted with the instant, hard speed that made her Sterling's best field agent. She slung her arm, not to hit, but to defend the machine. Her forearm slammed into Julian's wrist with a cracking force. He yelled out, and the air left his body fast.
The physical hit, the shock of the fight, broke the terror. It became a simple fight to stay alive.
Julian stumbled back, holding his wrist, which was throbbing right away. Eliza didn't look like an analyst anymore. Her face was set in a desperate, hunting snarl. She was guarding the terminal like a mother protecting a den.
"Don't touch the power," she hissed, pulling the heavy terminal toward her, covering it with her body. "If I break the connection now, the core wipes itself. Everything we did was for nothing."
"Then we stop it together," Julian gasped, shaking out his hand. "We find the master code. We find the external comms. We send out a distress signal to anyone who isn't Sterling!"
"There is no master code! There is only the protocol!"
She reached for the keyboard. Julian lunged. It wasn't skills. It was two people losing it because of a choice no one should make. Julian grabbed the metal table edge and yanked himself around. He slammed into Eliza, trapping her against the table.
The hit knocked the Drive bag loose. The heavy black sack just slid over the rubber floor and hit the ground with a soft, dead thud.
Eliza saw her chance. She wrenched herself loose. Her elbow caught Julian right in the ribs. He folded up, choking, the air tasting like old pennies. She scrambled to the floor and snatched the bag. That was all she cared about. That was her only focus, her single goal. The Drive was the mission. The Drive was all that mattered.
Julian watched her, panting. He knew the argument was over. Logic had failed. He could not convince her to discard the mission. He had to disable the mission.He lunged past her, towards the generator, the source of the clean, oppressive power.Eliza saw his intent….a primal, obvious act of self-preservation.
Before he could reach the heavy machine, she was up, sprinting to intercept him. She tackled him, driving her shoulder right into the back of his legs. They crashed onto the rubber mat, the hit rattling Julian's teeth.
He rolled over, frantically reaching for the big red shutoff switch on the generator. His fingers scraped the heavy plastic.
Before he could hit it, Eliza's hand slammed down on his. Her grip was like steel, powered by all her training and a fear that was stronger than hunger or sleep.
"You can't," she spat, her face inches from his. Sweat and grime stained her hair. "It's over". We failed. Let the data go. Let the protocol run."
"If the protocol runs," Julian managed, fighting her grip, "it doesn't just kill me, Eliza. It transfers the Link data, and then it activates the global wipe to cover the tracks. Everyone connected, everything we know….it all goes dark. Sterling cleans the slate!"Eliza froze. Her eyes widened, losing their focus, staring past him at the single, cold light of the bare bulb.
"The global wipe…?" she whispered. She hadn't been privy to the absolute final protocol. Sterling had given her the mission to secure the Drive, but he hadn't told her the cost of securing it.Julian used her moment of paralysis. He wrenched his hand free and slammed his palm onto the emergency switch.The hum died. The light went out.Total, absolute darkness crashed down on the cabin, a silence heavier than the vacuum of space, broken only by the rough, desperate sound of two people trying to breathe.
Julian lay still, listening to the vast, empty wind howling outside, trying to feel if the cold silence was a temporary reprieve, or the beginning of the end.Eliza remained on the floor, the heavy Drive bag clutched to her chest in the dark.
"What have you done?" she breathed into the blackness.
"I bought us an hour," Julian answered, his voice rough. "Maybe two. Until the system runs on battery and brings the Link back online. We have to move. Now. We have to find Sterling before he finds the light switch."