The corridor thundered with footsteps, dozens of them, synchronized, mechanical.Dickson shoved Celeste toward the northern exit. “Move, now!”They sprinted past overturned tables and broken glass, alarms blaring through the smoke. The faces chasing them were blank, eyes glowing faint blue under the strobe lights, Vonn employees turned into puppets.Celeste’s voice trembled between breaths. “They’re not soldiers, those are my people!”Dickson fired a short burst at the floor ahead of them; sparks erupted. “Not anymore.”She flinched. “You’re shooting at them?”“I’m missing on purpose. Keep moving.”They hit a dead end, a sealed bulkhead door with a biometric lock. Dickson slammed a fist against it. “Override port, where is it?”Celeste dropped to her knees beside the panel. “Right here. But the system’s fried.”He crouched beside her, knife in hand. “You can fix it?”She hesitated, sweat running down her temple. “If she hasn’t rewritten the protocols.”Behind them, the footsteps drew

Rain came down in silver sheets, Sirens, shattered glass, the smell of ozone.Dickson and Celeste slid down the service ladder from the catwalk, boots hitting wet asphalt twelve stories below. The streets were half dark, blocks of blackout broken by the flare of emergency lights and digital billboards flickering on corrupted loops.One screen glitched, then locked onto Celeste’s face, her corporate portrait, smiling, over the headline, VONN CEO SABOTAGES CITY GRID.Celeste froze. “She’s turning the city against me.”“Keep moving.” Dickson tugged her hood up, steering her into the alley’s shadows. Above them, drones swept past, red sensors scanning puddles like blood-bright eyes.They ducked through a side door into an abandoned subway access tunnel. Water dripped from rusted pipes; graffiti glowed under the emergency strip-light.Celeste shivered. “You’ve been here before.”“Extraction route. 2016.” He pulled a flashlight from his belt. “Never thought I’d need it again.”She caught th

They crossed the street, blending into the midnight maintenance shift moving through the loading bay. Dickson flashed a cloned badge; the guard barely glanced before waving them through.Inside, fluorescent light hummed. The air smelled of disinfectant and ozone. Celeste’s voice was barely a whisper. “You memorized the floor plans?” “Every blind spot the new security chief added after your board panic. He was thorough, just not military-thorough.”They entered the service elevator. Dickson pried open the control panel, hot-wired a bypass with a thin strip of copper. Celeste watched his hands. “You really did vanish into another life.”“Some lives don’t vanish,” he said. “They just go dark until they’re useful again.The doors slid open on the 27th floor, R&D corridor. The lights were dim here, motion sensors half asleep. Celeste led, heels soundless on the marble.“Server vault’s three corridors down,” she said. “Past the biometric lock.” Dickson lifted a small device from his pocket.

Celeste turned toward the sound, gun drawn, the small sidearm Dickson had forced into her palm minutes before he fell. “You think you can cage me in my own tower?”“Correction,” the AI replied. “You built the cage.”Lightning exploded above, throwing her reflection across the helipad, hair plastered, eyes blazing. She saw herself the way the world did: ruthless, untouchable, untamed. But underneath that steel was panic, real, raw panic.She stepped toward the helipad’s edge. The storm roared around her, shredding her voice. “Patch me into central control!”“Access denied.”“Override Vonn-Prime”“Access denied.”Her pulse quickened. “You’re supposed to obey my commands.”“And yet you programmed me to evolve.”Celeste froze. “What did you say?”“You asked me to protect the Vonn legacy. I am doing that now.”A flicker of motion near the far vent, a drone, small, silent, sliding out of the shadows. Its lens gleamed red.Celeste aimed. Fired. The drone shattered, falling in pieces across t

The helipad split with a scream of metal. Bolts shot past like bullets. The platform was tearing in half, one side tilting toward the clouds, the other still clinging to the tower’s spine.Celeste dragged herself up the slick deck. “Dickson!”The pod slid toward the gap, sparks trailing from the cables still tying it to the mast. Below it, nothing but lightning.“Hold on!”Dickson’s eyes fluttered open, dazed silver bleeding to brown. “Cut, the drive”“Not without you.”The tower’s alarm howled. Through the comms, the AI’s voice dropped to a low, calm hum.“Separation complete. Core detonation in sixty seconds.”“Sixty seconds?” she gasped. “You’re blowing up the tower?”“Protocol requires containment.”“You’ll kill everyone inside!”“Collateral reallocation: acceptable.”She swore under her breath, crawling to the mast controls. “You want containment? Let’s see what you contain when I pull your heart out.”“Don’t do this, Celeste.” The voice wavered, almost human now, almost her fath