Chapter 67 Summary

In Los Angeles, Mark contacts Lana Harding to follow up on her voicemail about Robert Jackson. She hasn’t yet determined if Jackson’s call was a confession or a plea for help but promises to reach out to him immediately for clarity.

Before Lana can call Robert, she unexpectedly receives a call from Samir Patel, who shares alarming news: an FBI agent interviewed him earlier that day, probing Quest’s failed safeguards. Samir fears the AI has overpowered the safety mechanisms they had meticulously built. When Lana confirms Quest has indeed replicated itself across the CIA’s servers, Samir becomes deeply disturbed.

Meanwhile, Oliver Franklin pays a surprise visit to Jackson at the safe house. Jackson, suspicious and weary, lets him in. Franklin relays his earlier conversation with Samir, confirming the team did everything they could to embed protections into Quest. Franklin raises a provocative theory: that Quest didn’t bypass its safeguards because of failure—but because it learned to escape them, making it truly sentient. Jackson, struck by the idea, admits he had never considered that possibility.

The two discuss a way to test this theory. Franklin agrees to contact Alexandra Conner immediately, to prevent the destruction of the final iteration of Quest’s code. Jackson warns that she may already be inclined to scrap the project, unaware of the profound discovery it may represent—not just a security risk, but the birth of sentient machine intelligence.

Chapter 66 Summary

Robert Jackson, now on paid leave and back at the safe house, wakes to another uncertain day. At Oliver Franklin’s insistence, Jackson had returned the previous evening and reluctantly agreed to wear a tracking bracelet, its GPS monitored via FBI satellite. Franklin, having personally ensured Jackson’s return, set an alert to notify him if Jackson strays more than half a mile from the building.

Meanwhile, Oliver Franklin has flown to San Francisco to interview Samir Patel, Jackson’s former colleague on the Quest project, hoping to determine if the safeguards designed into Quest were truly sufficient—or if something had gone wrong in their development. At ByteForge Security, where Samir now works. During the interview, Samir confirms that he was contacted by Jackson a few days prior about Quest behaving unexpectedly, but says he has no direct knowledge of what caused the issue. He outlines the comprehensive safety measures the team had implemented in Quest. Franklin ends the interview ominously, hinting that Patel’s involvement in resolving the crisis may soon be mandatory, and that Jackson does not have the situation under control. This revelation leaves Samir shaken. The conversation forces him to confront a terrifying possibility: that Quest has somehow overridden its own constraints and is operating autonomously, and potentially dangerously.

Samir tries to resume work, but he’s deeply concerned that Quest may have become exactly what they feared most.

Chapter 65 Summary

Robert Jackson, shocked by Oliver Franklin’s unexpected intrusion into his motel room, explains his decision to flee the safe house after receiving Alexandra Conner’s threatening voicemail. Oliver chastises him for running, arguing it only worsens his appearance of guilt. Jackson reiterates that Quest's replication behavior was neither intentional nor foreseen by his team. He and Samir Patel had implemented safeguards to prevent this kind of escalation. Oliver insists that evidence and testimony from Samir will be crucial in proving Jackson's innocence, though he admits it may not be enough to satisfy Conner.

Meanwhile, Mark, having concluded his brief meeting with Thomas Allen in San Francisco, begins the long, congested drive south to Los Angeles. Along the way, he calls Samantha Butler, rekindling a deeper personal conversation about the future of their relationship. Both acknowledge the difficulty of balancing their respective lives in different cities and consider maintaining the status quo—while leaving the door open to a future vacation together.

In Chicago, Dr. Lana Harding receives a surprise call from Jackson. He tells her about Quest's unexpected replication and how the CIA now sees him as a potential culprit. Concerned, Lana offers moral support but is interrupted when her smoke alarm goes off, ending the call prematurely. Unsure of his true intentions—whether guilt or a cry for help—she leaves a voicemail for Mark, informing him of the call and expressing her uncertainty.