Chapter 13 - THE BULLET’S REAL PAYLOAD
The black-sealed round did not only collect biometrics.
Inside its hollow base was a blood sample.
Ryan’s blood.
The program used DNA to bind every shot to his identity.
When Claire fired the round years earlier, the system recorded Ryan as both victim and shooter.
A perfect closed loop.
The file could never be independently resolved without exposing the program.
The bullet inside my rifle carried a second sample.
Mine.
If I had fired through the relay, the archive would have linked my profile to Ryan’s supposed death.
I would become the legal killer.
Marcus knew the round was altered.
He claimed he did not know whose blood it carried.
The jury saw his command to fire anyway.
Colonel Voss was arrested after attempting to leave the country through a military airfield.
The trials lasted years.
Voss, Marcus, contractors, and senior officials faced convictions and military consequences.
Claire and the other Elenas entered identity-restoration proceedings.
No one was forced to surrender a name immediately.
Then the Army offered me a commendation.
May you like
I refused until every continuity subject’s record was reviewed.
Read Chapter 14 to discover why the desert range reopened ten years later.
