The silence after the suicide bomber lasted only three heartbeats.
Athena's voice cut through the net like a scalpel.
"All Stations, new priority: every adult civilian is now a possible dead-man trigger. If they move wrong, center mass and keep moving. We are not dying for optics tonight."
No one argued. They had seen the crater where Delta-3 7—9's window used to be. Although they doubted women would do the same, nothing was absolute here. What if some were brainwashed or had their child threatened? The scariest aspect of humanity was destruction in the name of love.
A dead man's switch was one of the worst threats to deal with because, other than persuading the attacker psychologically, there was nothing specialists could do to stop an explosion. Everything relied on the attacker's mindset.
