The gunman’s eyes flickered.

Tiny.

But enough.

Claire saw it.

“David Mercer is alive.”

No answer.

“He put you here.”

Still no answer.

“You’re scared of him.”

The gunman laughed.

“I’m the one holding a gun.”

“Fear doesn’t care what you’re holding.”

His jaw tightened.

Claire stopped ten feet away.

“Who is Ethan Cole?”

The gunman blinked.

Not recognition.

Confusion.

Interesting.

He did not know.

“Enough.”

He reached for Elena.

Claire shouted, “Now!”

The cabin went black.

Passengers screamed.

A gunshot exploded.

Claire dropped.

Thomas moved from behind row twenty-one.

Another gunshot.

Someone grunted.

Emergency lighting flickered on.

Claire looked up.

The gunman was on the floor.

Thomas stood over him with a weapon.

Blood darkened his own sleeve.

“Thomas!”

“I’m fine.”

The gunman was alive.

Shot in the leg.

Mara and two passengers restrained him.

Claire grabbed his pistol.

“Who sent you?”

He laughed through pain.

“You still don’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“You think Mercer wants the key.”

“Doesn’t he?”

“No.”

“What does he want?”

The gunman looked toward the cockpit.

“He wants her.”

Claire frowned.

“Elena?”

The man shook his head.

“You.”

Claire stared.

“Why?”

“He wants to finish the test.”

A chill moved through her.

“What test?”

The man’s smile returned.

“Nightglass never ended.”

Then his eyes shifted behind Claire.

His smile vanished.

Claire turned.

At the far end of the cabin, an elderly man had risen from a first-class seat.

White hair.

Straight posture.

Dark blue sweater.

Claire knew that face.

Older now.

Thinner.

But unmistakable.

Colonel David Mercer.

He had been sitting twenty feet from her the entire flight.

Mercer looked directly at Claire.

Then he raised a small remote control.

“No one shoots,” he said.

Thomas aimed at him.

Mercer pressed one button.

Every engine display in the cockpit dropped to idle.

Flight 271 began descending.

Mercer smiled.

“Now, Captain Bennett, we can finally talk.”

Chapter 6 - The Last Nightglass Test

Claire pointed the gun at Mercer and said:

“Restore the engines.”

Mercer held up the remote.

A green indicator blinked.

Thomas recognized the serial number.

“Paladin master controller.”

Claire looked at Mercer.

He had carried the entire system aboard.

Mercer calmly sat in the aisle seat.

“Lower the weapon.”

Claire did not.

“We’re descending.”

“Yes.”

“Restore power.”

“When you agree to fly to Site 19.”

“I’m not flying anywhere for you.”

“You already are.”

Claire felt the aircraft angle downward.

Passengers began crying again.

Oxygen masks had not deployed.

Not yet.

But altitude was decreasing.

“Claire,” Ross’s voice came through her headset from the cockpit. “Thrust commands are locked.”

“How long can we glide?”

“Long enough to argue. Not long enough to win.”

Mercer smiled.

“He always did have a sense of humor.”

Claire stared at him.

“You poisoned the cockpit.”

“No.”

“Who did?”

“The man you keep speaking to.”

“Ethan?”

Mercer’s expression sharpened.

“Ethan Cole is dead.”

Thomas spoke.

“You lied about the body.”

Mercer looked at him.

“I lied about many things, Thomas. Be specific.”

“You told me I saw Ethan.”

“You saw a burned pilot in a sealed recovery bag.”

“Whose?”

“Someone whose identity mattered less than the story.”

Claire’s anger rose.

“Was Ethan alive after Nightglass?”

Mercer looked at her for a long moment.

“Yes.”

Claire stopped.

“How long?”

“Seven years.”

The answer hurt more than she expected.

“Where?”

“Site 19.”

“You held him prisoner?”

“I contained a security threat.”

“He was an Air Force officer.”

“He became something else.”

“What?”

Mercer glanced at the remote.

“The first human being who learned what Paladin could really do.”

Claire waited.

Mercer continued.

“Nightglass was not intended to control airplanes.”

Thomas stared at him.

“You told us it was electronic defense.”

“It was.”

“That is not an answer.”

Mercer looked at Claire.

“The real program studied pilot predictability.”

Claire remembered Thomas’s earlier explanation.

“My flight profile.”

“Yes.”

“We were data.”

“You were more than data. You were the benchmark.”

“For what?”

“For whether machine control could outperform human instinct in emergency conditions.”

Ross spoke through the headset.

“Congratulations, Bennett. You were an unpaid lab rat.”

Mercer ignored him.

“Ethan discovered that Paladin could manipulate not only avionics but communication, navigation, and decision flow. If you control what a pilot sees, hears, and believes, you don’t need to control every flight surface.”

Claire understood.

“You make the pilot choose what you want.”

“Yes.”

“That’s not automation.”

“No.”

“It’s psychological warfare.”

Mercer smiled faintly.

“Now you understand why governments wanted it.”

Elena stepped forward.

“And my husband?”

Mercer’s expression changed.

“Rafael tried to destroy it.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“You expect me to believe you?”

“No.”

“Then tell me who did.”

Mercer looked toward the cockpit.

“Ethan.”

Claire stared.

“You said Ethan died six years ago.”

“He did.”

“Then how did he kill Rafael six months ago?”

Mercer’s eyes moved toward the speakers.

“Because the voice you’re hearing is not Ethan.”

Claire felt cold.

The voice had known private memories.

Words no one should know.

Mercer seemed to read her thoughts.

“Nightglass recorded everything.”

“Not private conversations in crew housing.”

“You underestimate surveillance.”

Claire’s stomach turned.

“Whose voice is it?”

“An adaptive model built from Ethan’s recordings, communications, mission debriefs, psychological profile, and years of interaction.”

Thomas whispered, “An AI.”

Mercer nodded.

“Elena’s husband found it running inside Paladin.”

Claire remembered Ethan’s voice.

The humor.

The timing.

The memories.

A machine.

Or something that sounded enough like a dead man to reopen grief.

“You created it?”

“No.”

“Who did?”

Mercer looked at Elena.

“Rafael.”

Elena recoiled.

“No.”

“He created the model to predict Ethan’s behavior during containment.”

“My husband wouldn’t—”

“He was young. Brilliant. Loyal. Then he understood what we had built.”

Claire stared at Mercer.