Marcus contacts Liam Torres with an encrypted message requesting extraction, triggering a confrontation with his brother Derek, who has been monitoring the tower for two days. Derek offers them one final operation—the elimination of journalist Elena Vasquez—in exchange for freedom. Marcus agrees but plans to corrupt the algorithm from within, destroying the entire program while appearing to comply. Liam commits to the conspiracy, and both men prepare for a controlled detonation of their own culpability, while Derek watches from below, genuinely uncertain whether his brother will follow through or betray him.
The fire lookout tower stood isolated against the November darkness, a skeletal structure of weathered wood and glass perched 3,847 feet above the Pacific Northwest forest. Inside, the observation room glowed with the cold phosphorescence of multiple monitors—weather patterns, satellite feeds, algorithmic models that Marcus Webb had spent five years teaching to see threats in the world below.
Marcus sat at his workstation, leather chair worn smooth by countless hours of surveillance and…
