Page 221 of Damsel in Disguise

Screaming.

“They knew the access tunnels,” the man on the radio keeps talking while firing.

More gunfire.

“They knew the security rotations.”

A final burst of static. “They knew everything—”

I close my eyes for a brief moment. Exactly on schedule.

Asher kept his word.

Right after I freed Ariella from HINR, the first encrypted message reached him. It was about a laboratory shipment of a Synthète.

Then another. A hidden account of the buyer.

And another. The location of a Dominion operative inside Parliament.

A scientist selling research.

A council member trading children for influence.

Enough truth to make him wonder who was speaking.

Never enough to reveal why.

Lastly, the final message was simpler. The meet-up.

Asher Keinston is many things. Cautious has never been one of them. And right now it’s the only thing I need.

A new image replaces the others in the monitor. The lower eastern wing.

Smoke and broken security barriers.

Men in black tactical gear are advancing through the corridors.

Behind them walks Asher Keinston with a gun in hand.

Even through a grainy security feed, I recognize the expression on his face—rage.

Beside him is Adrian, also armed. Of course, he came.

The way recognition flickered in his eyes the moment he first saw me in her apartment, I knew Ariella had asked him to look into me long before any of this began.

He had always been too observant. He simply lacked enough pieces to complete the puzzle.

Until now.

Ariella relaxes the moment she sees them both. Her tensed shoulders drop from hope. Such a dangerous thing.

The laboratory doors shake again.

One hinge tears loose.

The guards reposition themselves, not pointing their weapons at me anymore. Their weapons face the doors.

The Crown asks, very softly, even though the distorted voice almost takes away the softness. “When did you begin planning this?”