Shifted.
Cleared at specific intervals.
“Those aren’t defensive patterns,” she says.
“No,” I agree. “They’re staging patterns.”
The realization settles between us, heavy and immediate.
“They weren’t reacting to conflict,” she says slowly. “They were creating it.”
“Yeah,” I nod. “Controlled escalation.”
She exhales, something sharper cutting through her expression.
“That’s not just corruption,” she mutters. “That’s?—”
“War engineering,” I finish.
The words sit there.
Ugly.
Accurate.
I scroll further, digging into the command overrides embedded in the data.
“Here,” I say, highlighting a sequence. “This is where it gets worse.”
She leans in closer.
“Those are cross-system authorizations,” she says.
“Yeah,” I reply. “Not just IHC.”
Her gaze flicks to mine.
“Coalition too,” she says.
“Or at least someone inside it,” I correct.
She shakes her head slightly, disbelief cutting through her tone.
“That’s not a border conflict,” she says. “That’s a coordinated operation.”
“False flag,” I say.
The words land hard.
Her posture changes, tension tightening through her shoulders.
“You’re saying Driscoll was manufacturing incidents to justify escalation,” she says.
“I’m saying he was building a war,” I reply.
Silence stretches between us, not empty, but loaded.
“And Tury saw it,” she says.
