Page 102 of Code Name: Phoenix

Tears flow freely down my best friend’s cheeks.

She deserves better.

We all do.

It’s time to let everyone go.

Moving back to the computer, I sit down to key in the code that will release everyone.

Dana’s eyes leave mine and move to her phone.

Through sniffles, she’s reading the message, and her eyes slowly move back up to meet mine.

I know by the relief in her smile she doesn’t yet realize what is happening.

“Jessa, we’re out. This is it. I got our release information.” Innocent glee fills her face as she presses her phone to the window, and I take a moment to memorize her smile as I smile back.

I’ll take this memory with me.

As she looks into the room at my phone on the table beside me, her expression falls into concern. “Where is your message, Jessa? You said Zane would let us go together or not at all. That was the deal. We did it, right?”

“Dana, I’m so sorry,” I manage through a weak tone as I tap a couple of keys.

An alarm starts wailing outside the comms room doors.

Jack and Logan’s expressions tell me Link has just notified them that I’ve taken access of their base shutdown procedures, and I’m filtering the gases into the rooms that Hunter and I occupy.

It’s unavoidable. The only way to stop the gas is to cut all power, and I need to remain online for final strike confirmation or this is all for nothing. I won’t risk sending the gas anywhere else without knowing the positions of everyone outside of this room.

“Jessa?” Jack slams his fists against the glass, and the pain on his face crushes me. “Don’t do this. You don’t need to end it like this. Don’t leave me again.”

Tears run down my face as I continue to type. Dana screams my name, and I assume it’s because one of them must’ve filled her in on what’s happening.

I glance over my shoulder. Maxwell is barking orders at his people off-screen and watching everything unfold. The image of my brother is still on the screen. Another set of taps closes my connection to Travis’s image as the air pressure around me changes.

“Who’s Zane? I don’t understand,” Maxwell, still unaware that gases are being rerouted to my room, asks incredulously. A sardonic laugh escapes me.

“There is no Zane. There never was.”

“I don’t under—”

“I’m Zane.” I look around the silent room. No one is moving now. “ I created Zane in high school to use as an alternate identity if I ever needed one for hacking. I coded a system that could follow my cues and work with me. After you killed my family, Zane became my lead.Hecould never be found.Hecould never be caught, andhewould never be yours, just like I was never yours, Maxwell.”

“Jessa, you don’t have to do this. The gases you are filtering in are deadly. It’s cyanide.” Link’s concerned voice comes through the speaker on my laptop, and now everyone knows what is happening.

At Link’s words, Hunter bangs violently against the door he’s locked behind as he realizes his end will be the same as my own.

“This is how it has to end. I’m Zane, and I’m taking everything with me. My programs are all set to destroy themselves once I’ve pulled everything I need and decimated Maxwell’s servers. It’s the only way to free you as well.” I look up to Jack, who is in full panic mode.

Behind me, Hunter is still banging on the door, and Dana is screaming for all of this to stop.

I can’t take the sight of her pain any longer.

“Dana, I love you. Thank you for always being with me. You never let me down. I won’t let you down—” I try to continue, but her anger cuts me off.

“You’re letting me down now, Jessa. STOP IT. STOP THE GAS. PLEASE.” Her voice is broken, and she’s outright begging now.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I look at Grizz standing behind her, and I push him to take control. Leaning over the laptop once more, I tap in a new command, then look up at the group again.

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