Page 96 of Cold Ignition

Luca. Always Luca.

“Not just a weapon,” Troy said quietly.

Never had been.

And now—now the kid was stepping out into the open. Not physically. Worse.

Digitally. Strategically.

He was putting his work where it could be seen. Where it could be taken. Where it could be used to draw out something far bigger. The head.

Troy’s eyes narrowed slightly as another Directorate probe shifted—more aggressive now, less cautious.

“They’ll come for you,” he said under his breath.

Of course they would. Because Luca wasn’t just valuable. He was irreplaceable. And the Directorate didn’t tolerate assets it couldn’t control.

Which meant—they would escalate. They would push.

And eventually—they would try to take him.

Troy straightened slightly, fingers moving across his private console, isolating the signatures, mapping them in parallel to Luca’s system without interfering.

He didn’t touch the architecture.

Not yet. Because Luca knew what he was doing.

The precision alone proved that.

But knowing didn’t make him safe.

And that—that was where Troy came in. He pulled up a secondary layer—one that didn’t exist on any official Directorate map.

“They won’t protect you,” he said quietly.

Not Black Tide. Not the way this would need. They would fight. They would burn through anything in front of them.

But this—this was different.

This was a hunt that had been building long before any of them realized it.

And Luca—Luca had just stepped into the center of it.

Troy’s jaw tightened slightly as he watched another probe slip deeper into the system, drawn exactly where Luca wanted it.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “You’re pulling them out into the light.”

A beat.

Then quieter. “Which means they’re going to try to take your head off when they do.”

His fingers stilled over the keys. Decision already made. Had been made the second he recognized the pattern. Because this wasn’t just Directorate business anymore.

This was personal. Not for Luca. For him.

He’d watched the organization twist things for years. Burn assets. Erase people. Rewrite outcomes. And he’d let it happen—because that was the job.

Because that was the line. But this—this was different. Because Luca wasn’t just another asset. He was something the Directorate didn’t understand.