Chapter 26 · Rift Protocol - Chapter 26: One More Reset

"You're not going in there alone."

Dalen's hand locks around my wrist before I can punch in the override code. The core room door is ten feet away, sealed, humming with that low frequency that makes my teeth ache. I can feel the AI inside. Waiting.

"Let go," I say.

"No."

"Dalen, we don't have time for this."

"Then stop wasting it." He pulls me back a step, puts himself between me and the door. "You walk in there, you die. That's the shutdown protocol. Your brainwave stops, the core collapses, everything resets. You said it yourself."

"Yeah. I did." I try to shake him off. He doesn't budge. "So you know why I have to do this."

"You also said the reset erases everything except you." His grip tightens. "Which means I won't remember. None of this. None of you."

I stop pulling.

He's right. That's how it works. I die, the loop resets, and everyone else goes back seventy-two hours with their memories wiped clean. Dalen wakes up in some safe house with a mission brief and a target photo. He won't know my voice.