erything at NCA: neither so dense as to arouse suspicion, nor so visible as to be noticed. Only the dim b

pause. There could be no margin for error. Not this time. What they were about to do would not only test the reach of

ll. He had learned to read her without her speaking. The way she bit her lower lip whenever she hesitated, the way h

finally. His voice was low, as if he was afra

ediately. Her eyes remai

reference with protocol 2A and validate origin

didn't know the history behind those codes. But to those who un

inally. "It's about moving the board.

r, letting his shoes crunch

ddressed. Not to

without needi

n Iri

one who knew too much and too little at the same time. The

no insisted, his tone laden with an une

gue, but there was a new sparkle, a determination

need. A movement. Anything but this s

nd that room. For knowing that, if everything went wrong, Lucía would be the

on with a calm that wasn't calm, but

e felt a small buzz in his network-reading wristband. A subtle

creen few used, one he kept on only out

An old reflex, a messed-up algorithm. But it took

Clara V

he one she'd tried to bloc

nature... "

f them knew wh

run down his spine. It was impossible. Or not. Maybe someone h

Bruno

nd then, he knew. That message was

ghter. Her stubbornness without arrogance. Her voice when she

ilenced he

oman dared to ign

each minute without a response. Every se

ion?" he said again, more to fill

that fear is part of the process. That one

within the system. That no one will l

ced him with s

the end. But at least

internal network. Almost invisible. Encoded with a

one who dete

in a l

t touch Terminal 6-0. It's contamina

sed her eyes as if she needed

urn m

pen

da

o asked, although

Lucía m

t does i

he first time in days, h

se. Or at least, he'

and. They didn't say anything e

: a coded message that arriv

ey were going to c

left alone in the monitoring room. The other analysts had left, on

m. He

had been fragmented, deliberately disguised as a technical error. It was too elaborat

a forgotten semantic key. It all se

red leap. Because it-that combination

Vill

spoken it in years, not even mentally. He'd buried her. Fo

ar

days in the Risk Assessment Unit, reviewing the same files, constructing reports with surgical precision. But between them, the silences spoke louder

d each other. Because at NCA, naming

they

tion one of the darkest programs: the Emotional Reconditioning Protocol. She discovered what no one was supposed to discover. She trie

nation due to op

aid. Empty, cold, mons

elf like a machine. An obed

d himself neve

repeat th

no

ne, dancing on the same abyss. And that coded message, that dig

wrote it-he know

w, her story lives

rned off

report any

n years, he felt somethi

sn't

s ver

down, a vo

troy them. Not like