The Algorithm of Control

The city hummed beneath them, the Potomac a dark ribbon slicing through Washington, D.C.’s quiet power. Inside the hotel room, Olivia sat in front of her laptop, cycling through footage with sharp, methodical precision.

Jessica leaned against the desk, arms crossed. “Tell me what I’m looking at.”

Olivia rewound the clip of two press briefings, three years apart. Same suit, same podium, same controlled smile.

She hit play.

“…summers at my grandfather’s lake house in Vermont.”

Then the second clip.

“…summers at my grandfather’s lake house in Vermont.”

Jessica exhaled. Identical. Not just in wording, but in tone, cadence, even the subtle tilt of his head. A perfect repetition.

Leanna’s voice was low. “That’s not a rehearsed answer.”

“No,” Olivia agreed. “It’s choreography.”

Silence settled over the room.

Jessica broke it first. “We need to know when he changed.”

Olivia nodded. “I’m running AI comparisons now. If there’s a shift, we’ll find it.”

Leanna leaned back against the window. “And in the meantime?”

Jessica exhaled. “We go see Kurtz.”

* * *

It wasn’t Langley. It wasn’t even a known government building. Just an address, a nameless structure on the edges of Arlington. Jessica and Leanna stood in the shadows of an alley across the street, watching the entrance. Kurtz had arrived half an hour ago, alone.

Jessica adjusted the collar of her jacket. “We do this clean. No threats, no grandstanding.”

Leanna smirked. “And if he’s the wrong guy?”

Jessica didn’t smile back. “Then we walk away.”

She stepped onto the pavement, crossing the street. Leanna followed.

Inside, the building was sterile—corporate, government, private intelligence. A front. Kurtz’s office was on the second floor, his name listed as a generic ‘Senior Policy Advisor.’

Jessica didn’t knock. She opened the door.

Kurtz looked up from his desk, surprise flickering in his eyes before he smoothed it over. He was in his fifties, sharp suit, the kind of man who had been inside the system too long to pretend he wasn’t part of it.

For a moment, he just stared. Then, softly: “I know who you are.”

Jessica met his gaze, unreadable. “Good. That saves time.”

Kurtz closed the file he had been working on, tapping his fingers against the desk. “I didn’t think you were real.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “Funny. I was about to say the same about you.”

Leanna leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “We’re not here for pleasantries.”

Kurtz let out a slow breath. “Then I suppose you’re here for the truth.”

Jessica pulled up a chair, sat down. “Start talking.”

A long silence stretched between them. Kurtz wasn’t panicking, but he was calculating. Measuring how much to say, how much to hold back.

Finally, he spoke. “There’s something you need to understand. Vanguard wasn’t the whole machine. It was just a spoke in the wheel.”

Jessica didn’t flinch. “We know there’s more.”

“No,” Kurtz said quietly. “You really don’t.”

He reached into his drawer, not for a weapon, but for a folder, thick with timeworn papers. He didn’t hand it over. Just rested his fingers on it.

“They called it Dominion.”

Jessica’s eyes narrowed. She glanced at Leanna. “What is it?”

Kurtz looked at them both. “You don’t know.”

Leanna straightened. “We wouldn’t be asking.”

Kurtz exhaled slowly. “Dominion is the program that watches the programs. The fail-safe. The shadow cast by the fire.”

Jessica’s voice was low. “What kind of fail-safe?”

Kurtz leaned forward. “What do you think happens when something is created that can’t be controlled? When the experiment starts asking questions? When the ghosts stop following the script?”

Jessica felt the words settle in her gut, cold, heavy.

Kurtz’s jaw clenched. “You think you’ve been fighting the real enemy. You haven’t even seen them. Dominion doesn’t correct mistakes, it erases them. Quietly. Completely.”

Leanna’s voice cut in, sharp. “Correction of what?”

Kurtz gestured vaguely. “Everything. All of it. Every stray anomaly. Every unstable asset. Every echo in the system that might one day look in a mirror and wonder why it exists.”

Jessica swallowed. “And who runs it?”

Kurtz’s eyes flicked to the door. “Not who. Not anymore.”

A chill moved through the room. Jessica could feel it. It was like they’d just crossed into territory no one came back from.

Before she could press further, Kurtz opened the desk drawer again. Leanna tensed, but he only slid a small flash drive across the desk.

Jessica didn’t touch it. “What’s on it?”

Kurtz exhaled. “A warning.”

Leanna’s voice was wary. “Why give it to us?”

Kurtz leaned back, eyes distant. “Because even I don’t know who’s in control anymore.”

Jessica picked up the drive, turning it in her fingers like a coin. “And we’re just supposed to believe you?”

Kurtz gave a faint, tired smile. “Believe whatever you want. I would trust no one. But if Dominion’s watching, they already know you’re here.”

* * *

Back at the hotel, Olivia was waiting, laptop still open, eyes sharp. She looked up the moment they stepped in. “Well?”

Jessica tossed the flash drive onto the table. It slid to a stop beside Olivia’s keyboard like a loaded question. “He knew who I was. Knew about Vanguard. But that’s not what got me.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Then what did?”

Jessica sat down slowly, as if saying it aloud would make it more real. “He mentioned something else. A new name. Dominion.”

For a moment, Olivia didn’t react. Then her brow furrowed. “Dominion?” She glanced at Leanna, who offered nothing but a tired shrug.

Jessica watched her carefully. “You haven’t heard of it either.”

Olivia shook her head. “No. And I’ve been inside nearly every classified archive the NSA forgot to lock.”

Jessica leaned forward, her voice low. “He said Vanguard was just a spoke in the wheel. Dominion is something else. Bigger. Older, maybe. The thing behind the curtain.”

Olivia picked up the flash drive, turning it over in her hand like it might bite. “What does it do?”

Jessica’s gaze lingered on the window, the darkness outside pressing in like a second skin. “He called it a correction.”

Leanna pulled off her jacket, letting it fall over the back of a chair. “That was not exactly reassuring.”

Jessica didn’t respond. Her mind was still in Kurtz’s office, still hearing that quiet certainty in his voice. You’re not even a variable anymore. She wasn’t sure what was worse, that Dominion existed, or that it had taken this long to learn its name.

Olivia inserted the drive, scanning for encryption. “If this is a setup, I’ll know in a few seconds.”

Jessica leaned against the wall, rubbing her temples. Something about Kurtz’s words stuck with her. He had said that it was a correction. Her stomach twisted. What had they created that needed correcting?

Then came the knock at the door. Jessica’s spine straightened. Leanna reached for her gun. Olivia froze. Jessica moved first, opening the door just enough to retrieve the plain white envelope sitting at their threshold.

She peeled it open. Inside was a small white pawn, painted black and a note, written in elegant, precise handwriting:

"Go further, and you won’t come back."

Leanna let out a slow breath. “Well. That’s subtle.”

Olivia looked at Jessica. “Black?”

Jessica turned the pawn between her fingers. She wasn’t sure because Mr. Black didn’t give warnings. He gave instructions. Which meant this? This was something else.