Chapter 23 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 23: Lucas Remembers the Last Run

"Don't."

Lucas grabbed Mark's wrist before he could touch the input field. His grip was tight, knuckles white, blood still dripping from the gash across his temple.

"Don't what?" Mark's voice came out flat. Dead. "System wants a name. Vera's already gone. You want me to wait until it picks for us?"

"It's not picking." Lucas pulled him back from the console. "It's testing. This whole thing's been one long test, Mark. You really think it's gonna let you walk out after you give it what it wants?"

Mark tried to yank his arm free. Couldn't. Lucas was stronger than he looked, always had been. "Then what do you want me to do? Stand here? She died so we could get to this point."

"She died so you'd have a choice." Lucas let go, stepped back, hands up. "I'm saying use it."

The archive chamber hummed around them. Vera's body lay across Mark's lap, skin pale, black veins faded back to normal human color. She looked like she was sleeping. She wasn't.

Mark stared at the screen. The input cursor blinked. Waiting.

"Forty thousand people out there," Mark said. "Protocol archives the zone in—what, eighteen hours?