The submarine’s steel corridors hummed with the ominous pulse of the Eclipse protocol’s warhead, its countdown ticking at eight minutes as Lena Hart—Eleanor Whitmore—clutched the green-lit device, her heart pounding. The key to the locker and her father Charles Whitmore’s coded letter pressed against her chest.

The microchip’s broadcast from the locker’s server had shattered the Consortium, with hashtag ConsortiumFalls trending at ninety million views, and Vivian ...