Eli’s hand hovered inches from the handle.The corridor was silent in the way he had expected, reminding him of how secured buildings always were —engineered quiet, layered with systems humming just beneath perception. The reinforced door loomed in front of him, matte black, anonymous, as if it had never been meant to draw attention. Yet everything about it did.The blood trail had ended here.The shadow—he was certain he’d seen it—had shifted just inside, a flicker of movement that suggested breath, weight, intent.His communicator vibrated.Once.It was sharp and insistent. A contrast to the silence.Eli stilled completely.He lowered his gaze to the screen. The name glowed up at him in clean white text.Carlos.For a fraction of a second, Eli lifted his head, eyes flicking back to the door.The shadow was gone.No movement. No distortion in the light. Just emptiness behind reinforced steel, as though the room itself had swallowed whatever shadow he had seen.Eli didn’t relax.He ke

For a heartbeat after the words Subject V3 left Carlos’s mouth, no one moved.Not the executives frozen mid-panic.Not the mercenaries with their fingers hovering too close to triggers.Not even Victor, whose expression had gone unnervingly still.Then the murmurs started as the execs looked from one person to another, wondering if this was something they needed to know while trying to grasp what was going on around them.Eli inhaled slowly.Then he straightened to his full height.Blood still traced a thin line from his nose, but he didn’t bother wiping it away. He took one deliberate step toward Carlos, then another—hands open, posture calm, eyes locked forward.Carlos’s smile flickered.“Don’t,” Carlos warned lightly, adjusting his stance. The gun snapped back up, steady, professional. “Real bullets, Eli. This isn’t one of your boardroom bluffs. Take another step and I won’t miss.”To prove the point, he pivoted smoothly and fired.Two shots.A mercenary to Victor’s left dropped wi

Victor emerged from the corridor like he was stepping into his living room after a short nap..It wasn’t rushed. Neither was he cautious – like he knew with certainty that Eli wouldn’t attack him unawares..Just… something he knew was going to happen if he wanted to end what he gave for quickly..The emergency lights carved sharp angles into his features as he stepped into the circular chamber, polished shoes striking the floor with a sound that carried farther than it should have—once, twice—before stopping dead center. For a moment, he didn’t spare Eli a glance. His attention drifted outward instead, then upward, taking in the cavernous height of the room. How the ceiling disappeared into darkness, swallowed whole, while black glass panels lined the walls like silent sentinels. Conduits threaded between them, breathing light in slow, synchronized pulses, as though the room itself had a heartbeat.The quantum node.Victor’s eyes gleamed, reflecting blue-white arcs of energy that fold

Eli didn’t stop running until his lungs burned and the pain in his foot threatened to drag him under.The blackout had turned the headquarters into a maze of shadows and half-lit corridors—emergency strips flickering red along the floors, alarms stuttering like they couldn’t decide whether to scream or die quietly. Every step sent a sharp protest up his leg, the wound hot and wet inside his boot, but adrenaline kept him upright. Moving.He ducked into a service corridor and slammed the door shut behind him, sliding the manual bolt home with a metallic clang that echoed far too loudly in the dark.“Damn it,” he breathed.His hands shook as he pulled his phone free.Bruno answered on the second ring. “Eli?”“The plan’s changed,” Eli said, voice low, clipped. “We’re not waiting. We move the loyal execs first—priority extraction. Get them out of the headquarters before Victor regroups.”A pause. Then, sharp focus. “What about Aurelius itself?”“Check every subsidiary,” Eli replied. “Every

The hospital corridor felt longer at night.Not physically—its length didn’t change—but the quiet stretched it, pulled it thin until every footstep sounded louder than it should. The overhead lights hummed softly, steady and unbothered, washing the pale walls in a sterile glow that made everything feel exposed.Bruno stood near the window at the far end, phone pressed to his ear, voice low.“I know,” he said. “I know.”On the other end of the line, Karim’s voice came through tight and restless, the way it always did when things started slipping out of his control.“Bruno,” Karim said, not bothering with pleasantries, “have you heard from Eli?”Bruno glanced down the corridor, instinctively checking for movement before answering. “Yeah. I have.”There was a pause. Relief, brief and sharp. “Good. Put him on.”“I can't, he is currently not with me now.”“Have you tried calling him? Why isn't he answering his phone.” Karim asked further “He’s not with his phone,” Bruno said. “Doctor’s or