CAMILA POV
The ocean is loud enough to drown thought.
Waves slam into the rocks below the cliff like they're trying to break their way onto land, foam glowing faintly under the moon. The air tastes of salt and rust and rain. I stand at the edge, wrapped in Alex's jacket, my bare feet sinking into cold sand that feels too real to belong to a memory.
But it does.
This place has been waiting for me.
Alex stands a step behind, close enough that I can feel his warmth even with the wind clawing between us. He doesn't rush me. He never does. He lets silence be what it needs to be.
"I can feel it," I say quietly. "The system. Ophidian. It's… awake."
He shifts. "What does that mean?"
I press my palm to my chest. My heartbeat is steady, calm in a way that surprises me. "It's not just data. It's patterns. Behavior. Decisions people thought were buried. My mother didn't hide a key inside me. She hid a conscience."
Alex exhales slowly. "A conscience gets people killed."
"I know." I turn to him. "It also stops monsters."
His eyes search mine, protective, conflicted, proud. "Tell me what you need."
That simple question hits harder than anything Solano ever said.
"I need time," I answer. "And a choice."
He nods once. "Then take it. I'll hold the line."
Behind us, the emergency exit from the facility gapes like a wound in the cliff face. Smoke drifts upward, thin and dark. Somewhere inside, alarms are still screaming, but they're distant now, less like a threat, more like a warning that's already been heard.
We move along the shoreline until the rock walls rise into a shallow cave, an old service alcove carved out by storms and neglect. Rusted equipment litters the floor. A broken terminal clings to the wall, its screen cracked but intact.
I stop in front of it.
"This," I whisper. "This is where she anchored it. A local node, off-grid. She planned for escape."
Alex steps closer. "Can you access it?"
I close my eyes.
I don't see code.
I feel it.
Like muscle memory. Like a song I learned before I had words.
"Yes."
I touch the terminal.
The screen flickers. White lines race. The air hums with a low vibration that settles into my bones. The system recognizes me, not by name, but by rhythm. Heart rate. Neural patterns. The way I breathe.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Alex stiffens. "Camila, "
"I know," I say. "I feel exposed too."
Images bloom across the cracked display: networks of names, transfers, timelines that intersect and diverge like veins. Faces I recognize from files Alex once showed me. Others I don't. Some are powerful. Some are dead. Some pretend to be both.
"This is everything," I whisper. "Every deal. Every cover-up. Every betrayal tied to Ophidian."
"And Solano?" Alex asks.
I swallow. "He's here. But he's not the center."
Alex's jaw tightens. "Then who is?"
I hesitate.
"People who think they're untouchable," I say. "People who built the rules and decided who mattered."
A shiver runs through the cave. Not from the cold, from the weight of it.
"If you release this," Alex says carefully, "you change the world."
"I know."
"And they'll come for you," he adds. "Not just Solano."
I meet his eyes. "They already are."
Silence stretches between us, taut as a wire.
"What if I don't?" I ask. "What if I shut it down? Erase it? Walk away and never look back?"
Alex doesn't answer right away. He takes a step closer, close enough that the wind can't get between us anymore.
"Then I'll take you somewhere quiet," he says. "We'll disappear. Build something small and stubborn and ours. I'll stand guard until I forget how to."
My throat tightens.
"That sounds like heaven."
"It could be," he says softly.
I look back at the screen. At the truth glowing like a living thing.
"And if I do release it?"
"Then I stand with you," he says without hesitation. "All the way."
I turn fully to him now. His face is lit by the screen, strong, tired, unflinching. This man who pulled me from the dark and never once tried to own me. Who learned to protect without caging. Who lets me choose.
"I'm afraid," I admit.
He lifts his hand and cups my cheek, thumb warm against my skin. "So am I."
Our foreheads touch. The moment is quiet and fierce and fragile all at once.
"I loved her," I whisper. "The woman she was before they took everything. If I walk away… it feels like losing her twice."
Alex's breath brushes my lips. "Then don't walk away."
I inhale.
The ocean roars.
And I choose.
I turn back to the terminal and begin to speak, not aloud, but inward, aligning the system to my intent. The screen responds, reshaping itself, pathways opening like doors finally unlocked.
"Camila," Alex murmurs. "We've got movement."
Footsteps echo from the direction of the facility. Shapes move in the fog, too many, too coordinated.
I keep my hand on the terminal. "I'm almost done."
A voice cuts through the wind, amplified and smooth.
"You always were decisive," Solano calls. "Your mother would be proud."
Alex raises his gun, placing himself between me and the cave mouth. "Stay back."
Solano steps into view at the edge of the rocks, his silhouette framed by moonlight and smoke. Calm. Smiling. Like a man who believes he's already won.
"Release it," he says to me. "And you become a target forever."
I don't look at him. "I already am."
"You don't understand what you're unleashing."
"I do," I say. "Consequences."
Alex glances back at me, something like awe in his eyes.
Solano's smile fades. "Then you leave me no choice."
He signals.
Figures surge forward.
Alex fires, precise, controlled, buying seconds. I finish the sequence, heart steady, mind clear.
CONFIRM DISSEMINATION?
I press my thumb to the cracked glass.
"Yes."
The terminal screams to life, light flooding the cave. Data floods outward, silent, unstoppable, alive. Somewhere far beyond the coast, systems will light up, files will unlock, secrets will surface like bodies from deep water.
Solano roars in fury.
Alex grabs my hand. "Time to go."
We run.
Not away from the truth.
With it.
Behind us, the cave shakes, alarms spike, and the night fractures under the weight of everything that was hidden.
Ahead of us, the shoreline opens into darkness and possibility.
I don't know what tomorrow brings.
But for the first time, I know who I am.
And I'm not alone.