Keep reading—the biggest twist is still ahead.

The helicopters were swarming the tower, their searchlights cutting through the rain like blinding, intrusive eyes. The wind was buffeting the spire, making the entire structure groan under the pressure. I was cornered, with no way down and a squad of men rising through the internal service ladder.

I took the tapes off the reel and threw them off the tower. They tumbled into the dark, falling for a thousand feet before they hit the streets below. They wouldn't survive the fall, but the message had been broadcast. The world already had the data.

I wasn't a target anymore. I was a witness.

The service door burst open.

Arthur stepped into the housing, his weapon raised, his eyes filled with a mixture of hatred and grudging respect. "It's over, Varrick. You destroyed the evidence, but you also destroyed your chance at survival."

"I didn't destroy the evidence," I said, my voice steady. "I shared it. The entire world knows who you are."

"The world doesn't care about the truth," Arthur said, his finger tightening on the trigger. "They care about the status quo. And the status quo is that you’re dead."

He stepped closer, but before he could fire, a massive explosion rocked the tower.

Not from the helicopters. From the ground.

I looked down. The entire base of the tower was exploding, a coordinated, military-grade strike that brought the structure down.

I didn't wait. I dove toward the railing, grabbed a maintenance cable, and jumped.

The wind screamed as I slid down the cable, the tower swaying violently. I hit the ground hard, my bones aching, but I was out.

I scrambled into the shadows of the nearby buildings, the world around me collapsing in a storm of steel and fire. I was alone, I was hurt, and I had nothing left.

But as the tower fell, I saw the people coming out of their homes, looking up at the sky, their faces filled with shock, but also with something else—the realization that they had been lied to.

I disappeared into the night, the ruin of the tower behind me, the beginning of a new world ahead.

I was a ghost, a legend, a story.

But I was finally, truly, free.

The world was changing. And for the first time, I wasn't just watching. I was part of it.