Jesse secured the last piece of her tactical harness and turned back to the communication device. The question had been forming in her mind since Walsh first mentioned the distress signal, and now it demanded an answer.

"The beacon that came through the civilian channel," she said, her voice steady. "You said the encryption matched Cold War military protocols. But military distress signals don't route through civilian emergency frequencies. That's a security violation on about fifteen different levels."

Walsh didn't respond immediately. Jesse could hear the distant murmur of command center activity, the sound of someone pulling up additional files.

"You're right," Walsh finally admitted. "Which is why command's concerned this might be a false flag. Someone inside that facility deliberately routed the signal through civilian channels. Either they wanted to reach us without being traced through military networks, or they wanted the public to know something was happening."

Jesse's enhanced mind ran through the scenarios. A false flag operation would mean someone inside Sentinel's facility had access to both the distress beacon system and the knowledge of how to spoof military encryption. That required either high-level clearance or intimate knowledge of Cold War-era security protocols.

"Who had authorization to be in that facility?" Jesse asked.

"That's classified above my pay grade," Walsh said. "But I can tell you that the facility was supposed to be automated. Skeleton crew at best. No one was scheduled to be inside during this rotation."

Jesse pulled up a tactical map of downtown, the penthouse facility marked with a red waypoint. Forty-three stories in the ruins sector, surrounded by abandoned commercial structures and collapsed infrastructure. Perfect for a covert operation. Perfect for an ambush.

"And if this isn't a false flag?" Jesse asked, already knowing the answer.

"Then someone in that building knew Sentinel was going to activate, and they sent out a distress call because they needed us to know about it before something else happened."

Jesse moved toward her window, looking out at the neon-streaked darkness of the city beyond her safehouse. Somewhere out there, in that penthouse, an ancient weapon was waking up. And someone inside was trying to tell them something.

She checked her chronometer. Twenty-eight minutes remaining.