“What?”
“The protocol is reclassifying administrative events.”
The federal technician moved beside her.
“And separating authentication relationships.”
Maya looked at him.
“Explain.”
“If it completes, many events remain in the system, but the direct chain tying individual actions to specific administrator accounts can be broken.”
Mercer said:
“That is standard contamination protection.”
Lena shook her head.
“Network isolation does not require stripping identity relationships from logs.”
Maya looked at Mercer.
“What function is doing it?”
The technician opened the package configuration.
Then stopped.
“Sanitize Event Chain.”
The room went quiet.
Maya walked toward the monitor.
“What does that mean operationally?”
“It removes selected relationships between session actions and the original authentication context.”
“Deletion?”
“Not exactly. More like severing attribution.”
Mercer looked frustrated.
“I did not write the software.”
“No.”
Maya turned to Lena.
“Who did?”
“Sloan Integrated Systems.”
Mercer folded his arms.
“Then ask Calvin why it exists.”
“We will.”
The technician opened the command history.
Then looked at Maya.
“There’s something else.”
Chief Mercer’s activity appeared on the screen.
Several minutes before activation of the cyber protocol, Mercer had opened the emergency-response configuration document.
Then used a search function.
The search term appeared.
SANITIZE EVENT CHAIN.
Maya read it twice.
“When?”
“Before the protocol was activated.”
Mercer stepped forward.
“We had already discovered suspicious remote activity. I reviewed the emergency tools available to me.”
Maya looked at him.
“You searched for this specific function.”
“I needed to know what the protocol would do.”
“And then activated it.”
“Because we were under attack.”
“We know unauthorized commands came through a Sloan administrator certificate.”
“What else would you call that?”
Maya’s answer came quietly.
“Evidence.”
Mercer stared.
“Until we know who issued the commands.”
He turned toward Ben.
“Officer Carter.”
Ben straightened.
“Sir.”
“Go to the routing terminal.”
Ben did.
“Shut it down and disconnect it.”
Ben looked at the screen.
The terminal was preserving the transport-route history, including the unauthorized instructions.
He looked at Maya.
Then at Mercer.
“Sir, federal technicians are preserving that system.”
“I know.”
“Then—”
“Shut it down.”
Ben’s hands stayed by his sides.
Mercer’s voice hardened.
“Officer Carter.”
Ben swallowed.
“Put the order in writing, sir.”
The room went still.
Mercer took one step toward him.
“I gave you a lawful command.”
“Put it in writing.”
“You are on probation.”
“I know.”
“I write your review.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you understand what refusing me can do to your career?”
Ben’s face had gone pale.
“Yes.”
“Then shut it down.”