CHAPTER 2
He answered immediately.
A panicked voice shouted.
“Sir, all national defense satellites just lost external command control”
The CEO went pale.
“That is not possible”
The voice continued.
“They are responding to a single internal override signal”
A pause.
Then the words that broke the room.
“Signal source… Ethan Cole.”
Everyone turned toward the glass wall.
Outside.
Ethan was still walking away.
Calm.
Unhurried.
Like nothing had changed.
The CEO screamed into the phone.
“Stop him”
But the voice on the other end answered quietly.
“We can’t.”
“He is already inside the system.”
The building went into lockdown.
Every door sealed automatically.
Security systems rebooted.
And failed.
Inside the control room, engineers were panicking.
“He is not even logged in!”
“The system is responding to a ghost key!”
The CEO slammed his fist on the table.
“Find him!”
But on every screen, the same line appeared again.
ACCESS GRANTED
ETHAN COLE
PRIME ARCHITECT CONFIRMED
Silence fell.
The HR director whispered.
“What does that mean”
The chief engineer answered slowly.
“It means… he was never an employee.”
Everyone turned.
The engineer swallowed hard.
“He was part of the original system design layer.”
The CEO shook his head.
“No. That was classified. Only the founders had access.”
The engineer looked at him.
“Then explain why every core protocol is asking him for permission.”
Outside the building, Ethan stopped walking.
His phone vibrated once.
A single message.
“Protocol Omega is awake.”
He sighed slightly.
“Finally.”
Back inside, alarms escalated.
NUCLEAR DEFENSE GRID STATUS
PENDING USER CONFIRMATION
The CEO shouted.
“SHUT IT DOWN NOW”
But the engineer backed away from the console.
“We can’t shut it down.”
“Because we are no longer administrators.”
The CEO froze.
“Then who is”
May you like
The system answered for them.
ETHAN COLE
FULL AUTHORITY RESTORED
