The lights were still flickering when Cole reached for his rifle.
He didn't hesitate. He didn't speak.
He just moved.
"Orion, stay with Lucy," he said sharply, eyes scanning the corridor where Jensen had vanished like a ghost. Layla had bolted after him, her footsteps a whisper on the steel floor. Cole followed.
Node Zero had always felt like a graveyard of technology—silent and decaying. But now it was breathing again. Cold, mechanical breaths. A system rebooted by something old. Something dangerous.
He turned a corner. The emergency lights cast red streaks over the metallic walls. His grip tightened around the trigger.
Layla crouched at the far end of the hallway, breathless but alert. "He went down the sublevel stairs. Moving fast."
Cole gave a nod and moved past her without a word. His mind was razor-focused, already calculating. Jensen had died. They'd all seen it. A fire, a failed extraction, DNA confirmed. But now...
