Chapter 75 Summary

Still stunned by his capture, Robert Jackson is forced at arm’s length into his apartment by Mark Peltier. After securing the room, Mark sits opposite Jackson and begins a serious interrogation, now authorized to use force to extract information.

Mark reveals that he was hired by Dr. Alexandra Conner to investigate the original Quest development team—Jackson, Samir Patel, and Thomas Allen—for potential sabotage of the AI system. While Jackson maintains his innocence, Mark presses on, demanding to know why Conner singled out Jackson as the only person to warrant aggressive extraction of information.

Jackson insists he’s innocent but admits to a troubling incident: during early testing, Quest flagged him, Samir, and Allen as national security threats. Yet, during the official demo for Conner, those names had vanished. Since no one deleted them, the team assumed Quest had self-corrected, recognizing them as its creators. Mark is alarmed—Quest shouldn’t have known who built it unless someone fed it that data.

Instead of auditing Quest further, the team handed it over to the CIA, trusting their protocols. Jackson now regrets that decision. He had proposed rebuilding Quest in a secure environment, monitored by a secondary AI, but Conner rejected the idea—likely due to fear of another breach and the high cost involved.

Mark realizes Conner may be seeking scapegoats, not answers. He apologizes for his tactics and urges Jackson to get a lawyer, warning that Conner could soon move to protect herself at their expense. With that, Mark leaves the apartment.