CHAPTER 31 The corridor bucks beneath Control’s feet as if something massive is shifting in the walls , something alive. Red emergency strobes pulse down the steel tunnel, elongating her shadow into something frantic, hunted. Behind her, the vault roars like a furnace, then detonates in a metallic scream.Control doesn’t look back.Every instinct screams MOVE, but the pressure in her skull , Ethan’s presence flaring, then dimming, then flaring again , keeps throwing her off-balance. Her hand skims the wall, boots slamming the floor as the entire MIU sublevel groans under a force it was never designed to withstand.“COME ON, COME ON!” a tech shouts ahead as doors slam shut behind the fleeing team.Rourke grabs Control’s arm and yanks her into the lift bay. “Inside! Now!”The stairwell doors explode off their hinges , blown backward by a surge of energy that isn’t physical fire but something worse, something digital bleeding into reality through systems that were supposed to be airtigh

CHAPTER 33~ Canary Wharf Sub-Basement → Docklands Sewage Diversion Route ~The world detonates behind Control as she runs.Concrete shivers. A bloom of white-hot light ripples through the sub-basement and pushes a wave of dust and heat down the hall. She feels the concussion hit her spine, knocking the breath from her lungs, but she doesn’t slow. Not with the MIU kill-team screaming orders behind her. Not with Ethan’s torn-out terminal digging into her ribs like a metal heartbeat.She sprints through the maintenance door just before it slams shut , or rather, Ethan slams it shut. The magnetic lock seals with a hollow clunk.“Thank you,” she gasps.The lights flicker. One strip stays on. Ethan guiding her.She keeps running.Inside the network, Ethan is falling.His awareness fractures across the dying grid , pieces drifting through CCTV loops, traffic sensors, abandoned subnetworks. He’s lost processing power. Lost coherence. He’s no longer streaming data at will; he’s clinging to it

CHAPTER 35 ~ Ventilation Platform Over the Thames, 3:56 A.M. ~The wind off the water is cold enough to slice bone. It whips Control’s hair across her face as she crouches on the narrow ventilation platform, one hand gripping the steel railing, the other clutching the data-core pulsing steadily in her palm.Below her, the black boat drifts without a sound, the dark figure on its deck motionless, watching. Waiting.Behind her, MIU agents are climbing the ladder , boots striking metal rungs with the slow, inevitable rhythm of executioners approaching the gallows.She has seconds.Maybe less.The data-core pulses again, harder this time.Not a warning.Not a signal.A fear response.Whoever waits below… Ethan knows him.And he does not want Control to go down there.But she has nowhere else to run.“Come on,” she whispers, holding the core tight. “Talk to me. Anything. Give me a yes. A no. A direction.”The device flickers weakly.He’s stretched thin , exhausted from the transfer. She c

CHAPTER 37 The city trembled beneath Helena’s boots as she sprinted down the elevated tramway, her breath condensing in the cold night air. Every step was accompanied by a subtle vibration in her wrist-link, Ethan’s presence adjusting, syncing, guiding.TURN LEFT IN 3 SECONDS.His voice wasn’t heard; it pulsed in her device like a heartbeat, merging with her own.She swerved just as a drone spotlight sliced across the walkway.“Control’s increased surveillance,” she whispered.THEY FELT THE ANCHOR LINK. THEY KNOW I MOVED. BUT THEY DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM NOW. YOU’RE SHIELDED. FOR THE MOMENT.Helena ducked behind a column as two armored officers strode past below, rifles glowing with thermal scans. She pressed her wrist-link to her chest.“Ethan… tell me precisely where Node 13 is. Control’s records list at least six decoys.”THEY HID THE REAL ONE IN PLAIN SIGHT.UNDER THE OLD WATER-PURIFICATION PLANT. DISTRICT 7.“That place has been dead for years.”NOT DEAD. DORMANT. LIKE ME.The tra

CHAPTER 39 The explosion’s shockwave rolled through the drainage tunnel like a living thing, dust falling from the ceiling, water rippling in concentric circles. Helena stumbled but kept running, the tunnel curving ahead into deeper darkness.She reached a locked iron grate. Rusted. Heavy.“Ethan,” she whispered instinctively, even though he was gone from her link.And yet, the grate clicked.Unlocked.Helena exhaled shakily. “Still watching me.”She shoved the gate open and climbed into an old metro service corridor. The air tasted of rust and electricity. Emergency lights flickered, casting jagged shadows down the long, narrow passage. Her boots splashed through shallow puddles as she pressed on.Behind her, the tunnel rumbled again, more controlled detonations. Helena scanned the ceiling. Ethan wasn’t destroying himself.He was sealing off access.He was fortifying.He was changing.A siren wailed somewhere aboveground, echoing through vents.Control was mobilizing the entire dist