The thumb of Commander Thorne rested right on the red detonator button, and my heart stopped dead in my chest.The white diamond in his chest was broken into sharp pieces, but he didn't care about the pain. His face was twisted into a cold, ugly grin of pure madness. Behind him, the backup generator hummed with a heavy, dangerous vibration that made the concrete floor shake beneath our boots."You think breaking the main console means you win, Kiran?" Thorne spat out, blood dripping down his chin as he pressed his thumb a fraction of an inch closer to the plastic trigger. "If this backup generator goes up, the entire underground bunker collapses. Every tube, every server, every living person in New Seoul turns to dust in five seconds.""Don't move, Thorne!" Lyra commanded. Her voice cut through the noise of the alarms like a sharp blade. She didn't panic. Her single violet eye scanned his posture, measuring the angle of his arm and the tiny twitch in his fingers."And what are you goi

Two blinding beams of pure energy rushed toward us, filling the narrow cargo bay with blinding light and intense heat. I didn't think. I threw my arms out wide, pushing the gold energy from my blood straight forward to form a solid shield. The twin blasts slammed into my barrier with a force that rattled every bone in my body. The metal floor beneath my boots buckled, and sparks showered down from the ceiling like a rain of fire. Across the bay, Commander Thorne stood with his arms raised, his chest glowing with that strange, ugly purple light. He wasn't bleeding anymore. The system had rebuilt him, turning his flesh into something hard and unnatural. "You can't block this, prototype!" Thorne shouted over the roar of the energy clash. "The Syndicate gave me an upgraded core!

The digital pen in Leo's hand glowed with blinding white light, aiming straight at Lyra's chest. My breath caught in my throat. I stood frozen at the melted entrance of the server room, the golden fire in my blood suddenly stalling. Director Vance stood right beside Leo, holding the glass vial of gold liquid up to the dim blue light of the mainframe. Her calm smile made my stomach twist into hard knots. "Don't move, Kiran," Director Vance said, her voice echoing coldly off the server pillars. "One step closer, and your little hacker friend gets her script deleted permanently." Lyra didn't flinch. Her single violet eye stayed locked on her brother's face, completely ignoring the glowing white tip of the digital pen pointing at her heart. She didn't look scared or surprised. S

The smell of burning metal filled the air as Director Vance took her final, rattling breath and collapsed onto the cold steel floor. I didn't have a second to look away or mourn her. Across the open engine deck, the Supreme Commander stood with his massive plasma cannon still smoking from the shot. His teeth were bared in a cruel, triumphant grin, and the barrel of his weapon locked squarely onto my face. "You should have stayed in your coffee shop, prototype," the Supreme Commander said, his finger tightening on the trigger. "A simulation is all you were ever good for." Before the blue energy beam could leave the barrel, Lyra moved with blinding speed. She didn't aim for the Commander's chest; she raised her pistol and fired two rapid shots straight into the thick overhead

A blinding beam of blue light rushed straight toward my chest before I even had time to take a breath. I threw my hands up instinctively, letting the gold fire in my blood burst outward into a solid wall of energy. The blast slammed into my barrier with a force that rattled my teeth and cracked the concrete pavement beneath my boots. Across the courtyard of the ruined transit station, the masked figure in the black Syndicate uniform lowered his heavy plasma cannon. Through the gaps in his helmet, his eyes glowed with that same terrifying purple light that had consumed Commander Thorne. "Kiran," the figure said, his voice distorted by a mechanical filter, but carrying a sharp, familiar tone that stopped my heart cold. "You broke the simulation, but you forgot one important de