Goddess was deeply concerned about Ryder, not to mention the missing Winner. She wanted answers, and she doubted Ryder would have thought her capable of the scheme she came up with: It involved a prototype Cynfo program called QuickClone, which she used to dupe Ryder’s BioAuth signature through near field communication. Even though they hadn’t slept together since he’d begun behaving oddly, Ryder had embraced her that morning, and the NFC did the rest. His BioAuth would give her everything she needed.

Having accessed certain secure areas of the Cynfo servers via her laptop, Goddess now locked the door of her office. She had been going through the data modules for more than an hour when she found the visual feeds from several days previously. They showed what Ryder had seen: Winner being strangled to death by a CyMS. Ryder had orchestrated the attack and simply looked on as poor Winner was murdered.

What had caused his breakdown? The crisis? His relentless ambition? His psychotic tendencies? Something else? It hardly mattered now, but the conclusion was unavoidable: Ryder Arcadia had gone insane. Equally concerning: The Great Wall program that seemed to offer hope was clearly deeply flawed.

Goddess got up and staggered over to a trash can, fearing she was about to vomit. But, the moment passed. She counted to 30 and managed to compose herself. She needed what she always needed at such times: a plan.

Ryder might have lost it, but the rest of Cynfo’s employees had not. Goddess tapped her comms implant and called Crimson. "Come to my office immediately with Beater and Zephyr. Make sure Ryder doesn’t see you. This is just between us."

Next Story: 74. The Real Secret Agent