The morning after the HYDRA revelation, Evelyn didn't show up at the Tower.
Not officially.
She bypassed main security, re-routed her digital signature, and entered through the underground vault. Wolfe's team wouldn't track her. Only he would know where to find her.
But this wasn't about Wolfe. Not today.
This was about leverage.
Vance had left her a breadcrumb—a location, encoded into the metadata of the HYDRA folder. An old station outside the city, long abandoned, once used as a Cold War data pass-through.
She left without telling Wolfe. Without backup. Just one weapon, and a sharper instinct than ever.
---
The station was empty.
She stood beneath rusted beams and rotting wires, wind howling through shattered panes. No cameras. No comms.
Vance appeared like a ghost—calm, composed, as if summoned by her resolve.
"You decoded it," he said. "Good."
Evelyn didn't waste time. "I need names. Real ones."
He paced, slow and measured. "Names don't matter. They change. What matters is structure. This isn't just a network. It's an ecosystem. Wolfe is a node. You are becoming another."
"I don't want to be one."
"You already are. The moment you touched Parallax. The moment you stood beside Wolfe on that stage."
Evelyn's eyes narrowed. "Why me?"
"Because you're not compromised. Not yet. But the window's closing."
She stepped forward. "Tell me how to burn it down."
Vance's smile was brief and dangerous. "Then you'll need this."
He handed her a drive. Metallic. Cold. Thumbprint encrypted.
"What is it?"
"A map. Every node. Every fail-safe. Every shadow account they use to keep the machine running. And one final asset."
"What asset?"
"Someone inside Wolfe Global. Someone you trust. Someone already flipped."
Evelyn didn't react.
Vance tilted his head. "You still think Wolfe can protect you. But it's not about protection anymore. It's about survival."
She turned, already done with him.
"Keep your extraction offer," she said. "I'm not running. I'm rewriting the rules."
---
Wolfe stood in the strategy vault, watching the second hand of his watch.
Evelyn was thirty minutes late.
She wasn't late.
She was doing something without him.
Conrad entered, silent. "Her signal was dead for twenty minutes."
"Location?"
"Westline station. Scrubbed."
Wolfe didn't blink. "She found him again."
Conrad nodded. "Should I send a team?"
"No," Wolfe said. "If she's not back in two hours, I'll go myself."
---
Evelyn returned before the hour struck.
She handed Wolfe the drive. No explanation. Just action.
He connected it.
What loaded was worse than either of them expected.
Embedded in the network diagrams was a new protocol:
OPERATION: CULLING.
It wasn't just data manipulation anymore. It was removal. Identified liabilities. Suppression orders. Contingency blacklists. Executions disguised as economic collapse.
And one target stood out:
Alexander Wolfe – Schedule: Pending.
Wolfe's breath slowed.
"This is a kill order," he said.
Evelyn looked at him, steady. "And it's already active."
He turned to her. "Why didn't you tell me you were going?"
"Because I knew what I'd have to do. And I needed to be sure I could still walk away, if you—if we—were compromised."
Wolfe stepped closer.
"I told you. We stand together."
She met his gaze. "Then let's show them what that looks like."
No more defense.
No more running.
They were the next threat.
And they were ready to strike first.