Then calmly:
“They created me, Hannah.”
That hits differently.
Even Russ notices it.
Hannah slowly rises to her feet.
“What does that mean?”
Wu laughs quietly.
Not mocking.
Almost tired.
“Ascension was funded because governments feared weakness.”
A pause.
“They simply lacked the courage to complete the work themselves.”
Cold slides through every inch of me.
No.
No, no, no.
He’s saying governments helped build this.
Gabriel looks sick.
Russ just gets quieter.
Deadlier.
Wu continues:
“I did what civilized nations secretly wanted.”
And somehow—
somehow—
the horror just became even bigger.
66
Hannah
The emergency transit shaft is hidden behind a false maintenance wall three corridors below the checkpoint.
If I hadn’t remembered it…we never would’ve found it.
Russ forces the rusted panel open while distant gunfire echoes somewhere above us through the bunker levels.
Mason and Lucas are buying us time.
