That is the whole secret.

You do not have to become a monster to defeat one.

You need only stop being the person who cleans up after it.

Chapter 12 — The Screens

The murmur in the two-thousand-seat auditorium swelled into a roar, and then the university did a thing I had not expected, and would never forget.

The projection screens that flanked the stage — the ones that had been showing, all morning, the university crest and the words CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2026 — went dark for a moment, and then filled with the forensic audit summary.