Krystal’s Point Of View
The sun was a faint smear behind heavy clouds, casting a dull light over the cracked greenhouse windows. I stood at the threshold of the basement entrance, one hand braced against the rusted frame, the other clutching the drive we’d extracted from the archive. It was still warm from the transfer. The secrets inside could burn the world down.
Colt emerged behind me, his face drawn tight, eyes focused forward. He didn’t speak. Neither did I. We didn’t need to. Everything that could’ve been said had already stained the walls of that lab beneath our feet.
We made our way back to the safehouse in silence.
The drive was encrypted. Elias would get to work on it the moment we were back online. For now, we were in limbo.
Back at the safehouse, I sat cross-legged on the
