Another pause.
Then he exhales.
“She’s not waiting to be rescued,” he murmurs.
My chest tightens.
“She’s building a data bomb,” he continues. “A cascading failure protocol. If this triggers inside their network….”
He doesn’t finish the sentence.
He doesn’t need to.
“She’s orchestrating collapse.”
For a moment, I just stare at the screen.
Ellie isn’t just surviving.
She’s fighting.
From the inside.
And when we finally step onto that battlefield, Katerina won’t know what hit her.
But one thing becomes immediately clear.
We can’t storm that facility.
Timofey pulls up satellite imagery of the compound again. Reinforced gates. Armed security. Surveillance towers. Layers of political and legal protection.
“Even if we got inside the perimeter,” he says, “we’d never reach the core labs before the entire region locked down.”
So we change the plan.
No guns.
No convoys.
No ambushes.
For me.
Through one of my remaining contacts in Eastern Europe, I arrange something far more useful.
Access.
The syndicate’s shell corporations are tied to several international development programs—technology oversight, logistics infrastructure, regulatory audits.
Perfect cover.
Two days later, Timofey and I board a private flight to Romania with a small team.
They arrive prepared for war.
Heavy rifles.
Body armor.
