Sitting on the corner of the desk like it's just another paperweight.
"Found it," I breathe.
"Extract it," Cyprian says.
I pull the encryption device Kael gave me from the hidden pocket in my gown—a tiny black chip no bigger than my thumbnail. My hands are shaking as I press it against the biometric lock.
The case hums.
The lock flickers.
And then it clicks open.
Inside is a crystalline data drive.
Small.
Unassuming.
Worth millions.
I grab it.
And the moment my fingers close around it, every screen in the suite flashes red.
"Fuck," I whisper.
Kael's voice crackles through the earpiece, urgent and sharp.
"Alarm triggered. Building-wide silent protocol. Hale's enforcer teams are moving. East stairwell. You have maybe ninety seconds before they reach your floor."
Cyprian's amber veins flare incandescent.
"Move," he says.
I shove the drive into my pocket and run.
We burst back into the corridor.
And that's when I see it.
The crimson light.
Flooding the walls.
The floors.
The ceiling.
A pulsing, dangerous grid that turns the entire building into a glowing cage.
And from somewhere below us, I hear them.
Footsteps.
Heavy.
Methodical.
