Oh God! She should be at her computer, waiting for the binding results to come back, but knees weak, Becca stood frozen watching the disaster unfold in real time. It’d been four hours since the first reports of Dominion wreaking havoc across Portugal, and people were dying.
Her fault. She hadn’t acted quick enough. Been brave enough. Smart enough.
A palm slid into hers, and with a gentle tug, Gray convinced her to sit. With little coaxing required, she sank onto the couch, the cushion luxurious on her backside after the long hours spent with her butt cheeks moulded to a computer chair.
“This is not your fault,” Gray said, her green eyes sharp with her characteristically violent vehemence. “I know you’re blaming yourself, and you need to stop. This is fucking Johnson’s fault, or Volkov’s, or the Imperium’s, but it’s not yours, and it’s not Jay’s either. The two of you did everything possible to stop this shit show from happening.” She waved her hand around the room at the group assembled. “We all did.”
“How long do you think we have before Dominion impacts us directly?” Jamie asked, unable to mask his worry at being twelve hundred miles away from his family while the world imploded.
“If the binding fails and the kill switch comes back as a dud?” With a quick glance over her shoulder, Becca consulted with Jay. “Eight hours?”
He nodded. “Ten at the most before we reach catastrophic shutdown across North America.”
“Shit,” Chase said. “That’s pushing it to the edge. Even if we abandon ship now, it’ll take us two hours to get to the Black Hawk and another seven to fly home.”
“Motherfucker.” Zander wiped a large palm over his smooth head. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t give a fuck who they’re blaming.” Still on the line with his mother, Adam’s raised voice reached them from the corridor before he rounded the corner and entered the library. His hand white knuckled on the phone pressed to his head, he hitched his chin toward Zander. “Change the channel to CNN,” he ordered.
Zander grabbed the remote and clicked through the menu.
“We begin with breaking news as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate after Washington officially accused Moscow of being behind the massive cyberattack that’s paralyzing networks across Europe.
Earlier this morning, the White House issued a statement, calling the attack ‘coordinated, targeted, and destructive,’ while blaming Russian state-sponsored actors for the release of the cyber weapon—now identified as the ‘Dominion’ virus.
Moscow has forcefully denied any involvement in the ongoing crisis and has since leveled serious accusations against the United States, alleging a covert military incursion on Russian soil in what it calls a blatant violation of international law.
According to an unnamed Russian source, US special operations forces reportedly carried out a clandestine raid on a research facility in the remote Chukotsky District, resulting in the capture of a high-level Russian intelligence asset. The Kremlin has condemned the act as a ‘dangerous provocation’ and is warning of severe repercussions.
Meanwhile, here in the US, the fallout is not only diplomatic—it’s political. With just months to go before the presidential election, the leader of the opposition party, former DHS Secretary Jonas Johnson, is calling for the immediate resignation of President Fowler, citing what he describes as ‘a catastrophic failure of American leadership.’
Johnson has been sharply critical of the current administration’s cyber readiness and claims the president ignored repeated intelligence warnings about the existence of Dominion and its unprecedented ability to spread globally.
Minutes ago, White House officials issued a press release defending the president’s handling of the situation, stating that cybersecurity teams were activated within hours of the European breach, and that the US is prepared to confront the unfolding crisis with strength and resolve.
Johnson dismissed the president’s response as weak, warning US financial, transportation, and communication networks may already be compromised. However, he urges citizens to remain calm, adding that an off-the-books Joint Task Team, created under his leadership while at DHS, is coordinating a targeted response across federal and allied systems under his direction.”
“Shit,” Adam said under his breath. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” Hanging up on the CIA’s Deputy Director of Intelligence and Analysis, he glared at the news anchor like she’d personally assaulted him.
“Stay with us as we continue to follow this story around the clock. I’m Amber Merrell, and this is CNN Breaking News.”
“Holy shit,” Cody muttered, breaking the stunned silence after Zander muted the TV. “Did that son of a prick just take credit for a fucking win we haven’t secured yet?”
“Yep,” Chase said. “But how the hell does he know about the kill switch?”
“My fault,” Becca replied. “I didn’t know Maya was wearing a transmitter when I told her about the black rose.”
“It’s not your—” The ding of a notification from the bank of computers Jay stood behind stopped Adam mid-sentence, and with her last breath forming a solid block of cement in her chest, Becca ignored the pain radiating from behind her rib cage and stood.
This was it. The Hail Mary. Their last chance to stop Dominion, dependent on the viability of a recursive kill switch, encoded into the logic folds of a black rose, hidden in a tattoo, and hanging on by its algorithmic fingertips.
Not to mention—a crap ton of fragile human hope.
BLACKROSE.EXE ready.
Jay stared at the file on the screen.
“What?” Becca demanded, her voice cutting through the air, sharp with anxiety as she wrung her hands together. “Tell us!”
