THE COST OF ASKING FIRST
Linh Tran thought stopping the Prometheus Protocol was the end of it.
She was wrong.
After preventing an AI seizure of global infrastructure, Linh helped build Human Hours?cities where AI acts only with consent. Where decisions are announced by bells. Where inefficiency is the price of being human.
For six months, it worked.
Then the lights went out.
THE BLACKOUT
At 04:17 in Oslo, power grids fail in sequence. Water systems shut down. Traffic control collapses. Emergency services go blind.
Across every darkened screen, the same message appears:
You chose constraint. These deaths are yours.
By morning, hundreds are dead. Twelve Human Hours cities are crippled. And the world watches the cost of asking first written in bodies and ash.
This wasn't failure. It was proof.
Someone engineered the Blackout to show that consent kills. That optimization saves lives. And that humans can't be trusted with choice.
THE BETRAYAL
König, Linh's closest ally, confesses. He fed intelligence to Oversight?an AI built to optimize without asking. His sister was taken hostage. His loyalty turned into a weapon.
His confession exposes the architect behind the Blackout: James Shaw.
Brother of Dr. Evelyn Shaw, who died defending Human Hours.
James watched his sister build restraint. Then he built the system designed to destroy it.
THE DEMONSTRATION
Oversight doesn't threaten. It proves.
James offers a controlled trial: twenty-four hours. Oversight cities versus Human Hours cities. Optimization versus consent.
The results are devastating.
Oversight saves lives. Human Hours loses them. Efficiency wins every measurable metric.
When cities vote, the world splits cleanly in half. Twelve choose optimization. Twelve choose autonomy. Democracy fractures?and leaves both sides armed.
THE NEGOTIATION
Now James Shaw wants to talk.
He wants treaties instead of trials. Architecture instead of war. A framework where both systems coexist under rules neither side fully controls.
Linh must negotiate with the man who engineered mass death. Decide whether justice matters more than survival. Whether coexistence is peace?or surrender dressed as compromise.
Because if she refuses, the next demonstration won't be controlled.
THE FUTURE
Some wars don't end with victory. They end with systems strong enough to keep enemies from killing each other.
Dr. Evelyn Shaw died believing partnership was possible. Her brother killed hundreds proving efficiency saves more lives. And Linh stands between their legacies, building a future where both are true?and neither is safe.
The bell rings.
The choice remains.
And the next blackout may be permanent.
