The word hangs heavy in the room.
Mason immediately shakes his head.
“They already know pieces.”
Everybody looks at him sharply.
Interesting.
Mason leans against the wall tiredly.
“Not full details. But enough to know Sentinel exists.”
Russ’s jaw tightens.
“And nobody shut it down?”
Gabriel laughs harshly.
“You think governments destroy assets like Wu?”
That answer tells me everything.
Sentinel wasn’t hidden because nobody knew.
Sentinel survived because powerful people benefited from it.
Hannah looks sick.
“They let children disappear.”
Gabriel’s expression softens slightly toward her.
“They buried it under national security.”
That fury inside me comes roaring back instantly.
No wonder Wu operated so confidently.
He thought he was untouchable.
Protected.
Institutionalized evil.
Hannah slowly lowers herself into the chair beside me.
Exhaustion hits her hard now.
I slide fresh coffee toward her automatically.
She gives me the smallest tired smile.
Still beautiful.
Still somehow soft after all this.
“How do we stop him?” she whispers.
