Page 109 - SurprisingTruthFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Chapter 12:
The State of Nature
Henry had been living on the run for forty-eight
hours, threading the ghost networks he himself had
built, always one step ahead of the purist remnants of
The Truth Collective. His satellite phone was dark.
Lina and Vincent had effectively scrubbed his existence
from the decentralized web, but he still had one
connection: an old, secure back-door terminal he had
used in his Integrity Architect days to monitor high-
stakes international crises.
He found refuge in a deserted, dust-choked
museum archive, a space dedicated to the history of
diplomacy, filled with silent bronze statues of
statesmen who had built their entire careers on
strategic half-truths. The irony was a bitter, metallic
taste in his mouth.
On his salvaged screen, Henry watched the final
stage of Act Two unfold: the death of international
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