Burning Ghosts

VANCE’S POV

The dead man’s trigger first. I enter Carter’s code into the server interface — the alphanumeric sequence, exactly as he recited it in the storage room with that smile I still can’t decode.

The system prompts for confirmation. I confirm. The screen flashes once, a progress bar runs, and then a single line of text:

DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOL DEACTIVATED. TRIGGER OFFLINE.

The kill switch