Adrian and I weaved through dark hallways as we made our way to the east hall. My boots clanged on the metal floor, retreating gunfire. Adrian was like a steel wall of support at my back—definitely comforting, but still not enough. Trust here was a luxury, something poisonous and ungraspable.
We skidded to a halt in front of the server vault. The red signal light blinked: progress of breach. My hand went down onto the scanner — no time for niceties. I placed my palm flat. The door swished open.
Inside, racks of servers hummed ominously. Data streams erupted on screens. The smoke puffed from an overturned console. One shape hunched over the main terminal, a dark hood hiding her face.
"Freeze!" I yelled, reaching for my pistol.
She stiffened, turning. My own air was suddenly cut off as the hood fell back and there was that woman I'd encountered in the training bay, her face a twisted mirror image of my own. But she was no double — determination stiffened her jaw line, and her eyes flashed with purpose.
"Who the hell are you?" I snarled, moving forward.
She stood to attention, hands splayed. "Since Day One, I'm the one that's been in you.
Adrian closed the door after us, and I spun so quickly my pistol barrel clicked. He went to his gun, his face frowning.
I pointed my pistol at her. "Explain."
She smiled, lips curling. "Project Raven. You learned the code name — now you learn the meat. She gestured toward the servers. "I've been around longer than you realize."
"Raven," I said aloud. The user ID the code linked to led Rafe's site. "You're one of his people."
She laughed, sharp and low. "I work for no one."
"Then who?" Adrian stepped closer, his tone frosty. "The Kings or me? Which?"
She shook her head grimly. You two fancy you control this citadel. You don't even understand what the real game is." She pointed at the smoldering console. "I've come to break something that you two are hiding.
She had the console controls in her sights. Flames raged through my gut. If she managed to do so, the raw data Adrian gathered would be gone — my lifeline. I fired the gun.
Two shots. Her shoulder jerked back. She staggered but she did not go down. She spun and her leg kicked out, crashing against me, sending me skidding into the doorframe. And pain shot down my ribs—sharp, hard. I shrieked, but did not remove my hand from where it gripped the revolver.
Adrian came up behind her as smoothly as a ghost, knocking the pilfered drive out of her fingers and stomping it underfoot. Sparks flew out. She hissed, rolling away.
I barreled into her with a fist to the rib cage. She cursed and punched me in the arm, her teeth clicking. She was wiry, trained, wailing fists of me. I had turned her wrist around to her back.
"Stop," I growled.
She freed herself, spinning away. Her hand slid into her coat. I drew my pistol… while Adrian dropped her to the floor.
We both fell in a heap. I put my pistol to her temple; Adrian clamped bracelets onto her wrists. "Yes!" she snarled at me, her defiance afire.
"Name."
My voice was cold.
She spat blood. "Elyra."
My blood ran cold.
I froze. "What?"
She sat up, eyes mad. "You heard me. I'm. the real Elyra Hart."
My head seized. I had been with my twin, the woman standing in front of me, who said she was the true agent, I the copy. The Framed One.
Adrian's gun barrel lowered. "Explain. Now."
She laughed, labored breath. "Did you really think they would let you call yourself by your own name? Your face? The mission. never occurred. I'm the only true asset."
My trigger fingers shuddered. Fury seared behind my ribs. "Who are you?"
She drew breath, chest heaving. I was your key man—until you wiped. Before they wiped me." She spat again, hersing. "They required a fall guy. A ghost. They required a disposable. So they made you."
I stared, heart racing. "You—"
Adrian held his hand over her mouth stopping her. He pushed his forehead against hers, his eyes sparking. "Who?" he snarled, his voice low.
She locked his gaze. "I can't say his name." Her lip twisted. "But he is here."
A chill traced my spine. The one who had framed me—my ex-handler, the woman who'd called the kill—had just stepped into my territory.
"She said something… something about him still being inside these walls," I muttered.
"Where is he?" I snarled.
She jerked back suddenly, breaking Adrian's grip and lunging for another console. Cables tore free as she yanked it loose. Sparks lit the air.
I fired. The shot blew open a surge of light. She collapsed into a tangle of wires, body twisting. The drive in her hand shattered—data gone, at least for now.
I holstered my weapon and staggered toward her, pulse pounding.
"Dammit," I growled.
She looked up, stubborn. "You're not her. You're the illusion."
I was frozen and my ears rang with my pulse. The woman I had on the floor issued a voice that broke my brain. If she was the actual asset — if I was the Construct's creation everything I'd imagined was twisted.
Adrian's shoe made a cracking noise as he stood up, glancing over the room. "Team," he grumbled into comm. "Clear the east wing. Search for further threats."
The doors swung open. Guards stormed in, guns raised. Rafe stepped out of line, scar purple from the gash he'd taken last night. His eyes were confused, conflicted.
He noticed the woman on the floor and me kneeling next to her. His scar twitched. "What the devil is this?"
I got to my feet, my voice trembling with terror and anger. "She says she's Elyra Hart."
Rafe's eyes snapped to mine. "That's not possible."
I beheld the woman sprawled among the severed wires -my identical twin, the saboteur, my double in flesh. Betrayal was written on the stagnant air, and I could taste it.
"She's lying," Rafe said, taking a step toward the girl.
As Rafe entered, the lady raised her head, eyes like fire on Rafe. "Ask him," she growled. "Enquire of Valkov if he has ever seen me before to-day!"
Adrian's jaw clenched, eyes furrowing. "Is it true?"
I sucked in a breath, tossing my chin high up. You don't think I can say I only knew the rank-courier who brought enciphered orders? That the files with my face, except without exactly me in them, had been what I'd found?
I glanced at Adrian. "I don't know."
There was an upward spiral of silence; the gash alarm sirened on in the hallway. Guards shifted out, scrabbling.
The woman coughed. Blood coated her lips. "She—this. construct—knows nothing. I know everything."
Scenes pelted through my head in fragments: the masked intruder in the bay, the hijacked files, the ghost in my quarters. All of the threats had emanated from someone close to me. Her? Or a man playing both of us?
I took a slow breath and clenched my fists. "If you're you," I snapped, guttural, "say something only I would know.
She looked at me, eyes shimmering with agony. "The first mission's code word: Nightshade. You hissed in your teeth when they poisoned your legs."
My breath had ceased. I thought about that night, the metal floor, muscles sore, Adrian's voice, repeating, hers? The code word had saved me.
"She really is telling the truth," I murmured.
Adrian exhaled. "Rafe, get her to MedTech. Nico, data rescue—try to find something from that hard drive."
Rafe hovered above us, muscles taut with tension. "I don't like this."
I nodded, my chest tightening. "Neither do I."
The heart pounding, the heart pounding, as they carried her away, and all I could do was clasp my hand to my temple. The vision of two women — one of them my namesake, the other staring at me and reeling in disbelief — swirled in my head.
The alarm on the breach died. The doors shut. The doors to the server vault ground shut behind her.
Nothing was all around me: cut cables, broken drives, two lives stuck in a lie.
And a fight for my identity took on a life of its own.
The walls I blended in among were thrumming with secrets. I'd stick out the storm—but —at what price?
The mastermind of my destruction was somewhere behind those walls.
And now he has two Elyras at his disposal.
I rose and took out my gun and aimed at the black Elyra on the spot where she had fallen.