Rain splattered across the black windshield as the city lights blurred into streaks of amber and red. Elena sat silently in the back seat of Nicholas Vale's armored car, her fingers clenched into her coat sleeves as if the fabric could shield her from what she'd just witnessed.
A secret vault. A hidden AI prototype. And her sister's voice echoing from an encrypted recording, screaming one word:
"Run!"
Nicholas hadn't spoken since they left the underground facility. His face, normally so composed, was unreadable—a dangerous stillness masking something darker. Regret? Guilt? Or a brewing storm of his own?
"Elena," he finally said, voice low, "we don't have time. There's someone else pulling the strings—someone who's been inside ValeTech longer than I've been CEO."
She turned toward him. "You mean there's another traitor? Besides Ava?"
His jaw tightened. "Ava wasn't working alone. She was only a pawn. Someone else is orchestrating this, someone powerful. And they've turned my company into a weapon."
"But what kind of weapon?" she asked. "What was that AI doing in the vault?"
Nicholas hesitated—just long enough for her blood to chill.
"It was a failsafe," he admitted. "One Kate helped develop. Its original purpose was to detect human deception patterns—spying without consent, facial recognition beyond anything legal."
"You mean surveillance?"
"Worse," he said grimly. "It was designed to predict behavior. To manipulate public reaction before a threat ever emerged. Governments wanted it. Corporations offered billions."
Elena stared at him. "And you built it?"
"I shut it down," he said. "Or so I thought. Kate didn't just vanish—she discovered someone was trying to resurrect the project behind my back. She was silenced before she could expose it."
A long silence stretched between them.
"So what now?" Elena asked, voice trembling. "We just wait for this shadow figure to strike again?"
Nicholas met her eyes. "No. We expose them first. But there's someone we need to see. Someone who knew Kate better than we realized."
He pulled out a photo from his coat—a surveillance still. Elena gasped.
The image showed Kate. Alive. Weeks after her supposed disappearance. She was in a crowd at a tech summit, partially obscured… but unmistakably her.
"No," Elena whispered. "That's impossible. That was two months after she disappeared."
Nicholas nodded. "It gets worse. She was spotted with someone we both know."
He handed her a second photo.
Ava.
Standing beside Kate, both women deep in conversation. Ava… who had betrayed them. Ava… who was supposed to be dead.
Elena's heart raced. "What the hell is going on?"
"We've been lied to," Nicholas said. "By everyone."
---
Twelve hours later
They stood inside a silent glass-walled apartment overlooking the skyline. The place had been abandoned in haste—papers scattered, lights left on, and a single laptop open on the kitchen counter. Elena recognized the handwriting on the notes immediately.
Kate's.
"She lived here," Elena whispered. "All this time… she was alive?"
Nicholas moved toward the laptop. "Her digital trail was wiped. But if this is her fallback server…"
He typed in a series of commands, bypassing firewalls and triggering a hidden cache of messages. Videos. Logs. Journal entries. Elena leaned over his shoulder as her sister's voice filled the room.
"I was wrong about ValeTech," the recording began. "It's not Nicholas. It's someone above him—someone funding the project through shell corporations. I've traced it to a name, but I'm being watched. If anything happens to me, find the name in the file labeled 'Marionette.' It's encrypted. Nicholas… if you're listening to this, I'm sorry. I was never meant to be a martyr."
Elena swallowed hard.
"Do you think she's still alive?"
Nicholas didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the screen.
The file labeled "Marionette" was blinking. Encrypted, just as Kate said.
He began decoding it—but before he could finish, the entire screen flickered.
Then turned black.
A message appeared.
"YOU WERE WARNED."
Then—
Boom.
The building trembled as a sudden explosion rocked the lower floors. Glass shattered, alarms shrieked, and smoke filled the air.
Nicholas grabbed Elena's hand. "Go! Now!"
They bolted for the stairwell as flames licked up the walls. Somewhere beneath them, the apartment's electrical grid was frying. Sparks rained like angry fireflies.
Halfway down the stairs, Nicholas stopped short.
Blocking the exit was a tall figure clad in black—face hidden by a visor, voice distorted by a modulator.
"You should've left the past buried," the figure said.
"Who are you?" Elena shouted.
The figure raised a hand, and a tranquilizer dart shot from a wrist-mounted launcher. Nicholas pushed Elena aside and took the hit himself.
He dropped to the floor.
"No!" Elena screamed, lunging forward—but the figure was already gone, melting into the smoke like a phantom.
She dropped beside Nicholas, shaking him. "Stay with me—please!"
His eyes fluttered. He whispered something.
"Elena… the board… Marionette… not one person…"
And then he passed out.
---
Meanwhile…
Far across the city, inside a luxury penthouse lit only by flickering monitors, Ava leaned back in her chair, watching the explosion on a security feed.
Next to her stood someone in a tailored suit. Face hidden.
"We didn't get the file," Ava said coldly. "She's closer than we thought."
The shadowed figure nodded. "Then we initiate Phase Two. Let the girl think she's in control. Let her believe Nicholas is innocent."
"And when she gets too close?" Ava asked.
The figure smiled.
"Then she dies—just like her sister was supposed to."