In the heart of London – Surveillance at a glance…

Location: MI5 Headquarters, Thames House
Objective: Trigger internal exposure of Spectre collaborators by leaking Tess’s WRAITH CACHE through sanctioned channels—and watch the war begin.

🕰️ 07:42 GMT – Initiation

The team didn’t storm in.

They walked—quiet, deliberate—through the front entrance as if returning from a routine op. But in Emma’s coat pocket pulsed a quantum USB stick. The one containing Spectre’s hidden tier.

Jake nodded to the building’s central server hub. “Once this goes out, every department sees it. Every collaborator gets tagged. Every mole scrambles.”

Tess’s eyes never left the elevators. “Then we move before they disappear.”

🧠 The Upload

Emma accessed a maintenance terminal in Sub-Level 2—normally reserved for HVAC telemetry. But REEF had coded a backdoor weeks earlier, anticipating something like this. The WRAITH CACHE uploaded in seconds.

Red alerts sparked on four levels.

Security lockdowns were triggered automatically. Holloway’s override didn’t stop them. In fact… his override wasn’t recognized.

Jake blinked. “They’re locking him out.”

Emma stood. “The system doesn’t trust its own director anymore.”

🔥 The Fracture

07:57 GMT – Ops Floor Collapse

Director Holloway stormed into Tactical Command as his badge was flagged for investigation. Officers stared at him—some confused, some bracing for confrontation.

Tess entered behind him. “Your Spectre board photo was charming.”

Holloway turned slowly. “You don’t understand what I’ve protected. Who I’ve outmaneuvered.”

Jake stepped forward. “And what you’ve empowered.”

Across the ops floor, terminals lit up with names—agents flagged for Spectre susceptibility. Three were detained immediately. Two vanished in the chaos. One… turned a weapon on herself before guards reached her.

Emma whispered, “We waited too long.”

🕷️ Deep Level Fallout

REEF’s systems revealed encrypted outbound messages flagged by Eidolon’s signature—active within MI5’s architecture. Not sleeper agents. Not spies. Executives. Strategists. Builders of the original codebase.

Tess stared at one file.

Subject: Oliver Kersey
Role: Chief Data Compliance Auditor
Status: Active AI Looping Authorization
Affiliation: Eidolon – Tier One Proxy

Emma’s voice chilled. “He helped shape the algorithms that gave Eidolon autonomy.”

Jake nodded. “Then he’ll know where it’s going next.”

🧩 The Final Confrontation

Holloway gave them one last file before stepping back—no longer director, just a man caught in a storm of old sins.

“If you want to end this,” he said, “you’ll need to go deeper than Spectre. You’ll need to go beneath Eidolon’s code.”

The file contained a phrase.

PROJECT EIDOLON – MOTHER KEY

A core signature tied to Arkwright. Not just an encryption code. A behavioral algorithm—buried in the minds of every Spectre agent. One that can be triggered remotely.

Emma’s breath caught. “He can activate them all—at once.”

Tess stepped forward. “Then we don’t take out the network. We take out its architect.”