Page 446 of Scars of Fate

I took the protected evidence pouch from Wynn and secured it inside my vest.

General Kane lay near the aircraft.

His eyes stared toward the ceiling.

No final words.

No last threat.

No escape.

Just a man whose power had ended the moment people stopped fearing him.

Wynn looked toward Minser.

“He saved us.”

“He also caused this.”

“I know.”

Both things could be true.

Minser had helped Kane build the system that destroyed lives.

Then he had given his own life to end it.

Redemption didn’t erase the blood behind him.

But perhaps it meant his final choice belonged to him.

I removed the original metal tag from my pocket.

Then I took out Ghost’s spent black wafer.

The physical key and its one-use copy.

The last two objects capable of representing Fate’s command sequence.

Wynn watched me.

“What will you do with them?”

I carried them to an industrial vise mounted on a nearby workbench.

For years, that tag had controlled our lives.

No more.

I locked both pieces between the jaws and turned the handle.

The vise tightened.

Metal groaned.

The original tag cracked.

The black wafer shattered.