2025-05-26 20:24:21
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CHAPTER 195: THROUGH THE BROKEN MIRROR
Gunfire erupted like thunder in a sealed tomb.The chamber flashed with muzzle bursts, casting shadows like specters across the concrete walls. Luka dove to the side, bullets sparking off metal piping as he rolled into cover behind a rusted breaker box. Vesper dropped low, firing a tight burst from her sidearm, forcing the man to duck back behind the node access panel.“Who the fuck is this guy?!” Vesper yelled over the ricochet of shots.Luka’s mind raced. The man was fast...too fast. Not Foundation black-ops, not military-grade mercenary. He moved like someone... trained to mimic threat response. Precise. Mechanical. Almost predictive.“He’s not normal,” Luka barked. “Keep him pinned!”The stranger moved again...a flicker, a smear of motion, suddenly at the far end of the hallway. He didn’t take cover. He didn’t blink. He just walked, methodical and unshaken, like the bullets didn’t matter.Luka’s gut turned to ice.“He’s stalling,” Luka muttered.“For what?” Vesper asked.Luka’s mi
CHAPTER 194: SHATTERPOINT
Rain drilled the city like nails from the sky. The roads shimmered with slick oil-sheen, and steam rose from gutter vents like breath from a dying beast.In the basement of an old theater Luka had once used as a meeting point for Gale family operations, a new kind of war council was forming.The room was dimly lit, humming with backup power. Peeling posters from forgotten plays adorned the brick walls. Vesper, Viktor, Alessia, and Luka were gathered around a stripped-down operations board...maps, names, faces, routes...all changing by the hour.“You’re bleeding operatives,” Viktor growled, slamming a folder onto the table. “Salvi’s people are peeling off. Some flipping back to Mirelle. Others disappearing.”“They smell the fire coming,” Alessia said without looking up. “Rats don’t stay on burning ships.”Vesper circled the table like a panther. Her fingers danced over an uplinked tablet. “We’ve had five confirmed breaches across the southeast corridor. Grid comms went dark at midnight
CHAPTER 194: BURN LEDGER
The lights in the old observatory flickered weakly, casting warped shadows across walls papered with maps and red-threaded diagrams. Once a monument to stargazers, now it served as the nerve center for something far grittier: Luka’s rebellion.The White Key sat on a steel tray between them...still humming faintly, its glow oscillating like a living thing.Marco’s voice crackled through the satellite uplink, projecting from the terminal on the far wall.“I’ve isolated the primary code tree. The White Key gives us master-level override on Cinderlight protocols. Deployment, identity targeting, algorithmic strike filters...all of it.”Alessia leaned forward on the table, arms crossed. “Which means what exactly? We own their surveillance? Their kill lists?”Marco paused. “More than that. We own the engine. The Foundation used it to determine who lives and dies in this city. We can reshape that equation.”Luka stared at the cube. “Can we shut it down entirely?”Another pause.“You can,” Mar
CHAPTER 192: WHITE KEY
The warehouse at the edge of the Ransom District was colder than expected...more server farm than hideout, its walls pulsing faint blue with embedded heat-dampeners. The hum of hardware beneath concrete vibrated the soles of Luka’s boots.“Ten seconds out,” Alessia said over comms, crouched behind a burnt-out delivery truck just down the road. “No visible patrols. Could be automated security.”“Count on it,” Vesper replied from a rooftop above. “I’m seeing infrared grids. Motion-based. If we breach wrong, it cooks us alive.”“Good thing we’re not breaching wrong,” Luka said calmly, nodding to Viktor beside him. “Let’s move.”They approached low and silent, cloaked in dark jackets and dirt. The four-person strike team was lean...Luka, Alessia, Viktor, and Vesper...no distractions, no expendables. This wasn’t war. It was surgery.They reached the southern wall, where Viktor pried open a rusted maintenance grate.“Vent access,” he muttered. “Tight fit. No direct camera lines inside.”“Pe
CHAPTER 191: CINDERLIGHT
Smoke curled like fingers through the broken skylight of the broadcasting station, where just hours earlier, the city's darkest secrets had been vomited into the airwaves. Names, faces, betrayals. The Foundation exposed for what it truly was...an empire of control hidden behind a smile.Now the city reeled.Luka stood in the shell of the control room, staring out through shattered glass. Fires burned in the distance...three districts aflame, three more in riot. Curfews were declared but ignored. Gangs moved in daylight, police turned vigilante, and every man with a grudge and a gun thought himself a king.Vesper stepped beside him, brushing ash from her coat. “Congratulations,” she said, dry. “You’ve kicked the hive.”“I didn’t expect it to fall this fast,” Luka muttered.“Nothing built on fear holds long when people stop being afraid.”From the stairwell below, boots pounded up. Alessia appeared, hair tied back, blood streaked across her temple, breathing hard.“They’re moving on Cit
CHAPTER 190: ECHOES IN THE WRECKAGE
The city didn’t sleep anymore.Since the broadcast, the streets had mutated into something feral—sirens layered over screams, burning cars lighting alleyways like fever dreams. Whole neighborhoods erupted in panic or rebellion. Old factions re-emerged, scavenging power from the vacuum left behind. In the silence after the Foundation’s secrets had spilled across every screen, trust had become the most expensive currency, and Luka Gale found himself nearly broke.In a blacked-out floor of an abandoned high-rise, a temporary war room flickered to life. Maps were pinned with blood-red lines, tablets and cracked monitors looping footage from drones and hacked CCTV. The core team stood in a loose ring around a table littered with half-eaten rations and a topographical layout of the city’s power grid.Luka stood at the head, arms crossed, shoulders tight. The wound on his side still hadn’t closed right. Blood crusted the edge of the bandage beneath his shirt.“We’ve got thirty-six hours befo
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