Liberty Shifts: The Cost of Delay in an Era of National Security Clarity has become a weapon. As the United States recalibrates its National Security Strategy and quietly tightens the rules governing North American trade, Canada hesitates-caught between identity, process, and an assumption that time is still neutral. It isn't. When signals from Washington suggest the USMCA may not be renewed without clear, enforceable commitments, analyst Joel McCay, with strategist Maya, and Boston engineer Lucas find themselves tracking a deeper pattern: delay itself has become a strategic liability. Definitions matter. Timelines matter. And markets respond long before politicians do. At the center of it all is SIGMA, an advanced AI system designed to detect structural instability. What begins as policy analysis evolves into something far more unsettling as SIGMA starts identifying how ambiguity, narrative substitution, and institutional drift are quietly eroding resilience across the continent. While Mexico moves decisively toward alignment, Canada responds with frameworks instead of choices-and the cost compounds. Capital shifts. Insurance reprices. Alliances harden. The clock no one wants to acknowledge keeps ticking. Liberty Shifts is a near-future geopolitical thriller grounded in today's realities: the National Security Strategy, USMCA trade dynamics, AI governance, and the growing cost of pretending that delay is harmless. This is not a story about collapse. It's about consequence. And in an era of national security, consequence arrives whether you choose-or not. Tick-tock.