The Bureau gave Mira one job: erase General Vael Tisseren from the world's memory. Forty years of his crimes sat in her terminal, ready to delete. But the machine didn't really delete. It digested. Every file she picked turned into a soft warmth that filled the room, like the data breathed out one last time before it died. Mira cracked her knuckles and opened the first file.

Before she touched anything, Mira read the order again. 'Erase the General.' Not his crimes. Not his victims. Him. She frowned. If she deleted the man, what happened to the millions of records that only existed because of what he did? She opened a side panel and started counting.

Mira saw the trick. The Bureau didn't want justice. They wanted the General gone so no one could ever investigate who funded him. Erasing him would bury their crimes too. She started quietly copying the funding records to a drive in her pocket.

Mira walked the funding drive straight to a journalist she trusted. The Bureau's name was all over it. She knew they'd come for her, but the story would break first. 'Subtract him if you want,' she said, sealing the file. 'You can't subtract all of us.'