The truck tore through side streets, tires screeching, engine growling.
Trey's shirt was soaked with blood, but his grip on the wheel stayed firm.
"We can't outrun them forever," he said.
"We don't need forever," Maya replied. "Just long enough to reach the uplink."
Evan clutched the silver case.
The weight of it wasn't in the metal — it was in the consequences.
"If we upload this," he said, "how fast do they fall?"
Maya answered without hesitation. "Everywhere. Simultaneously. This doesn't just hit the Court — it shatters the whole system around them. Lawyers. Judges. Cops. Names buried in sealed files get dragged into light."
Trey grinned through gritted teeth. "About damn time."
Evan stared out the window.
No sirens. No helicopters. But the quiet felt wrong.
"Where's the uplink?" he asked.
"Abandoned radio station east of town," Maya said. "Off-grid. Still powered by a buried line they never cut. We'll be able to patch in and dump the drive to six whistleblower networks at once."
Trey nodded. "Let's make it quick then."
The next hour passed in silence.
No one asked how Trey was still conscious.
No one asked how Maya knew so much.
And Evan didn't ask why his own father — the man who read him bedtime stories, the man who taught him chess — had helped create a system that murdered thousands.
Because he already knew the answer.
Fear.
Power.
Survival.
The radio tower rose from the trees like a metal spine — crooked, rusting, but alive.
The station was buried in overgrowth, its windows shattered, the front door hanging off one hinge.
Maya jumped out first, scanning the treeline. "Clear."
Evan helped Trey from the driver's seat.
The older boy winced, teeth clenched. "Just get me inside."
The station's main room was filled with cobwebs, dust, and broken equipment. But in the corner, beneath a tarp, a generator still hummed.
"Hardline's intact," Maya confirmed. "Signal's weak, but enough to push data."
Evan set the case on the desk, opened it, and slotted the drive into the old terminal.
The system booted.
Lines of green code filled the screen.
UPLOAD READY: [Y/N]
He hovered over the key.
Then froze.
Outside — a distant rumble.
Trey looked up. "That's not thunder."
Maya cursed. "They found us."
Evan hit [Y].
The screen blinked.
UPLOADING… 4%
Gunfire shattered the silence.
Bullets ripped through the walls.
Maya shoved Evan down. "Stay on the floor!"
Trey crawled to the window, fired three times. A scream echoed from the trees.
17%
A grenade bounced through the broken window.
Maya grabbed it, threw it back — it detonated mid-air.
Shrapnel rained.
Evan didn't move from the console. "Keep them off me!"
42%
Trey screamed — a round had caught his leg. Blood poured fast now.
Maya dragged him behind a cabinet, fired two shots blind.
58%
Evan's hands shook on the keyboard.
"How many?"
"Too many!" Maya shouted.
A voice outside called in: deep, slow, confident.
"Evan. Step outside. Give us the drive. You don't have to die for this."
Evan didn't respond.
73%
"That's Director Cain," Maya whispered. "Head of Operations. The one who took your father out when he turned."
"He's here himself?"
Maya nodded. "Means they're scared."
85%
Outside, Cain's voice again: "Last chance, boy."
Evan stood up.
Maya grabbed him. "Don't."
Evan looked at her. Calm now. Cold.
"I'm not giving them a second more."
He stepped to the window, holding the case.
"I'm Evan Mercer," he shouted. "My father died for this. Your whole system ends tonight."
He dropped the case out the window.
Gunfire erupted — but the case was empty.
Just a decoy.
Evan ducked back.
99%
UPLOAD COMPLETE
The screen flashed:
TRANSMISSION SUCCESSFUL
Maya grabbed Evan. "Time to disappear."
They dragged Trey through the back exit just as Cain's men stormed the building.
By the time they entered, the station was burning.
The computer melted.
The room empty.
But the damage was done