(Location: Earth Alliance Shadow Council HQ – Undisclosed Location)
The room was steel and silence.
Thirteen men and women sat around a table so dark it reflected nothing.
A single screen in the center displayed grainy footage: soldiers paired with dogs, training in dusty compounds, drone footage of canine units moving through simulated ruins.
A general snorted.
"This is the future of Earth's defense? A war of barking tails and fairy tales?"
A French intelligence chief leaned forward.
"We are losing ground to myth. Our world's defense is being handed over to whispers, tombs, and animals."
An American admiral scrolled through a dossier.
"And meanwhile, three nuclear states still hold launch codes under presidents who've been reduced to symbolic puppets."
There was a long pause.
Then, the Italian general spoke:
"Then we remove the puppets."
Eyes met.
No one objected.
The plan was already written.
Phase One: Neutralization of the Big Three
U.S. President: targeted during a diplomatic visit to Zurich.
Russian Chairman: isolated at his private mountain estate.
Egyptian President: vulnerable during a planned desert inspection tour.
All would be taken in under four hours.
Silently.
Plausible deniability assured.
Phase Two: Activation of the Cold Keys
The nuclear protocol had evolved.
Not instant detonation — but activation rights.
Whoever held the Cold Keys could threaten deployment, and thereby command fear-based obedience.
The new regime wouldn't announce itself.
It would whisper in every ear.
And shut down every dissenter.
Phase Three: Elimination of Project Cerberus
Mock it.
Discredit the footage.
Frame Teba and Ashur as manipulated forces.
Release forged recordings of dog handlers breaking protocol.
"People want to believe in monsters. Not in mutts."
The French general finally stood.
"So it begins. We reclaim Earth. Not with spells or scrolls — but with steel and silence."
Outside, the wind howled through the facility.
Dogs barked far away.
None of the generals noticed.
None of them wondered why the dogs were barking.
And none of them realized… they were already being watched.