Vance enters her credentials and pulls up the documentation. Everything above classification level 3 is black-boxed — not redacted in the standard way, properly removed, metadata and all. The file log shows the removal was performed twenty-two days ago. One day after SABLE went dark.

You ask who had clearance to remove files at that classification. Vance stares at the screen. “Only the system itself,” she says quietly. “The system with full archive access.” She doesn’t say SABLE’s name. You don’t either. There doesn’t seem to be any point.