The safe house was eerily quiet when Selene returned from the mission. The thrill of victory was subdued by the heavy weight of uncertainty hanging in the air. Outside, the city's pulse continued unaware, but inside, every shadow seemed to whisper secrets and suspicions. The power grid had been crippled, but at what cost?
Selene entered the command room to find her team gathered, faces tight with worry and exhaustion. Calder's arm was still in a sling, but his eyes burned with unease. Lina sat beside the comms console, hands trembling slightly as she processed the mission data. Marrow leaned against the wall, his expression unreadable.
"We did what we came for," Selene began, her voice steady but laced with tension. "The grid cell is offline, Harrow's reach weakened — but something feels off."
Marrow stepped forward. "It's too convenient. The alarms, the guards... it felt like they wanted us to find that control room."
Calder grimaced. "A trap, maybe. But why? What's the endgame?"
Lina looked up from the screen, eyes haunted. "And there's more. I intercepted a series of encrypted messages during the hack — but one sequence was strangely familiar. The encryption keys match something I saw in Cassandra's files."
Selene's heart sank.
She looked across at Cassandra's cell, where the lieutenant sat with an unreadable expression, almost smug.
"Cassandra," Selene said quietly, "you've been holding back. What aren't you telling us?"
The lieutenant's eyes flickered, but her voice remained calm. "You think I would betray my own people? You misunderstand the game we're playing."
Selene narrowed her eyes. "Then explain the messages. Explain the trap."
Cassandra smiled faintly. "Harrow is larger than you know. Even I don't have all the pieces. But I can tell you this — there are players within players, and loyalties that shift like shadows. Trust is the most dangerous illusion of all."
The room grew colder, the weight of betrayal pressing down on them.
Selene's mind raced. Had they been pawns all along? Was Cassandra's presence a double-edged sword?
Marrow broke the silence. "We can't afford to fall apart now. We need to tighten security and double-check every piece of intel."
Calder nodded. "And we need to watch Cassandra. Every word, every move."
Days passed in a tense blur. The team worked to reinforce defenses while sifting through Cassandra's cryptic information. But the lieutenant's words gnawed at Selene — the idea that even those closest might not be who they seemed.
Late one night, Selene sat alone in the command room, scrolling through intercepted communications. A sudden alert flashed on the screen — an unauthorized access attempt originating from inside their own network.
Her breath caught.
Rushing to Lina's station, Selene found the tech expert already tracking the breach.
"It's subtle," Lina whispered. "Someone's using their credentials to mask the attack. Someone with inside access."
Selene's mind flashed back to Cassandra.
"Could it be her?" she asked.
Lina hesitated. "I can't say for sure. But whoever it is, they know us too well."
The realization hit Selene hard.
The enemy was not just outside the walls — it was within.
Trust was shattered.
The next morning, Selene gathered the team.
"We're dealing with a mole," she announced. "Someone is sabotaging us from within. We must root them out before everything falls apart."
Eyes darted nervously, fingers tightened around weapons.
The war against shadows was turning inward.
Selene's gaze locked on Cassandra one last time.
"This ends now," she said. "One way or another."
The echo of betrayal hung heavy in the air, a chilling reminder that in this war, the greatest enemy might be the one you never saw coming.