The knock came at midnight.
Callen sat upright, gun already in hand. The safehouse was supposed to be secure. No signals in, no signals out. Yet the knock came again—three slow taps. No more, no less.
Maya was beside him in a flash. Her eyes met his. No words were needed.
Callen crept to the door, checking the monitor. But the screen was scrambled—static eating the feed like a virus. Maya reached for the backup lens. Nothing.
Whoever was out there didn't want to be seen.
"Fall back," Callen mouthed. Maya nodded, taking position by the back wall.
Another knock.
This time, a voice followed. Muffled. Male.
"Callen. It's me. Riker."
Callen's grip tightened. "No chance," he muttered. "Riker wouldn't show up unannounced."
"Could be a trap," Maya whispered.
Callen agreed. But what if it wasn't?
He clicked the safety off. "Cover me."
Maya's eyes flickered. "Be careful."
He opened the door an inch, just enough to see the figure outside. Tall. Hooded. A scar across his jaw.
It was Riker.
But something was wrong.
He looked shaken. Paler than usual. Eyes darting like prey.
"Get in," Callen growled, yanking him inside. Maya locked the door instantly.
Riker stumbled forward. His coat was soaked—rain and blood.
"What the hell happened to you?" Maya asked.
Riker fell into a chair, panting. "They knew where I was. Every safe route. Every shadow. Like they were inside my head."
"Who?" Callen demanded.
Riker looked up, eyes hollow. "The ones who funded Serpent."
Silence fell like a curtain.
"You mean the board?" Maya asked.
"No," Riker said. "The ones behind them. Off-books. Deep pockets. The real owners."
Callen exchanged a look with her. "Why would they come after you now?"
"Because I tried to trace the transmission Leena sent," Riker replied. "I backtracked it. Through dead satellites. Through firewalls that shouldn't exist. And what I found…"
He stopped. Breathing ragged.
"Spit it out," Callen said.
Riker leaned forward.
"It didn't go to one location. It went to twelve. Simultaneously. Private nodes. Military-grade. Places no one is supposed to know about."
Maya's heart dropped.
"That means they planned for this," she whispered. "The breach, the wipe, the betrayal. All of it."
"They wanted us chasing ghosts," Riker said. "And now we're playing right into their hands."
Callen paced. "We need to get ahead of this. Find one of the nodes. Shut it down. Track whoever picks it up."
"I already did," Riker said. He pulled out a chip. "One node bounced back. Signal echo. Eastern coast. Abandoned naval base. But the signal came with a warning."
He tossed the chip on the table.
Maya plugged it into the reader.
The screen lit up.
A single message blinked across it: STOP DIGGING OR DIE.
Callen stared at it. "They're watching us."
"Then we take the fight to them," Maya said.
Riker sat up. "You're not getting it. These people run the fight. Every war you've seen? Every cover-up? That was just smoke. They are the fire."
Maya narrowed her eyes. "Then we become the burn."
They reached the abandoned naval base by nightfall.
Wind tore through the coast, salt biting their skin. The place looked deserted. Rusted gates. Broken lights. Concrete soaked with years of silence.
But Maya felt it in her bones—this place wasn't empty.
"Power grid's running," Callen said. "Backup lines."
"Someone's still here," Riker added, checking his scanner. "But the signal's buried deep."
They moved through the corridors like shadows. Every corner held a whisper. Every echo felt like breath on the back of the neck.
Then they found it.
A server room hidden beneath the mess hall. Reinforced. Guarded by biometric locks.
Maya stepped forward. The panel flashed red.
Callen pulled out the fingerprint gel. "You sure Leena's print still works?"
"She built this," Maya said. "Let's hope she was sloppy."
They pressed the print.
Green light.
The door slid open.
Inside, the air was colder. Machines hummed like nervous hearts. The room was filled with data towers, each blinking in rhythm.
Maya spotted the terminal. "There."
She plugged in Riker's chip.
The screens lit up. Maps. Locations. Protocol fragments.
And then, a video began to play.
It was Leena.
She sat in a dimly lit room, eyes shadowed, expression blank.
"If you're watching this," her voice said, "it means I'm already dead."
Maya froze.
"This protocol," Leena continued, "was never about protection. It was about prediction. Behavioral targeting. Pre-crime identification. They could see crimes before they happened—then decide who got erased."
Callen's jaw clenched. "They're playing god."
Leena's image flickered.
"I thought we were saving people. But we were culling them. Silently. Efficiently. And when I found out, they made me choose."
She looked straight at the camera.
"I chose to betray them."
The screen went dark.
Then a new signal activated. Trace line. Live.
Callen traced it. "It's pinging now. From the island facility off the grid. The Serpent's heart."
Riker checked his tablet. "Coordinates match. Remote location. No signal allowed in or out."
"They're preparing for something," Maya said.
"Then we hit them before they finish."
But the moment they turned to leave, the monitors flared red.
LOCKDOWN INITIATED.
Steel doors slammed shut.
And from the far end of the room, a hiss sounded.
Gas vents.
Poison.
"They're sealing us in!" Riker shouted.
Maya slammed her fist into the wall panel. "Override doesn't work!"
Callen looked at the ventilation shaft above. "We climb."
Smoke already filled the room, thick and bitter.
They hoisted Riker up first, then Maya followed.
Just as Callen was halfway up, the terminal flared one last time.
A new face.
Not Leena.
Not anyone they knew.
A man in a white suit. Clean. Smiling.
"You've come too far," he said. "And now you'll burn with your truth."
Then the room below exploded.
Fire surged toward them.
Callen pushed Maya upward, flames licking at his boots.
They escaped through the shaft seconds before it collapsed behind them.
Coughing, covered in soot, they stumbled out into the night.
But the island facility now had a countdown.
Riker stared at the charred remnants of the tablet.
"We've got seventy-two hours before they launch Serpent live."
"And then what?" Maya asked.
Callen's eyes narrowed.
"Then the world changes forever."
Behind them, a red drone light blinked in the darkness.
They were being watched.
And someone had just locked onto their location.