PART I: THE FORTRESS (Chapter 6. The Team)
787 Words
Benji Nguyen had been staring at the same line of code for seventeen minutes when the alert flashed across his screen.
He nearly knocked over his third energy drink of the night.
“Oh, *hell* no.”
His fingers flew across the keyboard, tracing the intrusion back to its source. It wasn’t just a hack—it was a *blatant* one, like someone had strolled into the Fortress’s servers and left the door wide open behind them.
And then he saw it.
A single file, left in the middle of the system like a taunt.
Benji hesitated.
Ari was going to murder him if he opened this.
But she’d also murder him if he *didn’t*.
He clicked it.
---
**The Hero and the Fanboy**
Ari found him twenty minutes later, pale-faced and wide-eyed in the glow of his monitors.
“Benji.”
He flinched so hard he kicked his own chair. “*Jesus*—I mean, hi. Ma’am. Commander. Uh.”
She didn’t blink. “You accessed the file.”
It wasn’t a question.
Benji swallowed. “It—it was just sitting there! And it had your name on it, and I thought maybe it was, like, a bomb or something—”
“It wasn’t.”
“No,” he admitted. “It was worse.”
The file had been a video. Grainy, distorted, but unmistakable. A Blackforge facility. A child in a training rig.
*Ari.*
Twelve years old, blood on her teeth, fighting not to scream as the neural interface lit up.
And beneath the footage, a message:
**WE REMEMBER YOU. DO YOU REMEMBER US?**
Ari’s expression didn’t change. But Benji saw the way her fingers twitched, like she was reaching for a weapon she wasn’t carrying.
“You shouldn’t have seen that,” she said quietly.
Benji opened his mouth. Closed it. Then, in a rush: “I won’t tell anyone. I swear. But you—you *have* to know, the way they got in? It wasn’t just a hack. They used *our* protocols. Like they knew exactly how we—”
“I know.”
“Oh.” He deflated. Then, hesitantly: “...Do you know *who*?”
Ari exhaled. “I’m starting to.”
---
**The Analyst**
Benji Nguyen, 22, was the youngest member of Sentinel’s core team. Officially, his title was *Cybersecurity Analyst III*. Unofficially, he was the human equivalent of a Swiss Army knife—if the knife also had a caffeine addiction and a habit of talking to servers like they were misbehaving pets.
He’d been recruited straight out of university after he’d (accidentally) hacked a Defense Ministry satellite during a coding competition. Kael had called it *“reckless brilliance.”* Ari had called it *“a security hazard.”*
But here’s the thing about Benji:
He *believed* in the Fortress.
And more than that—he believed in *Ari.*
Which was why, when she turned to leave, he blurted out: “Let me help.”
She paused. “Help with what?”
“With *this.*” He gestured wildly at the screen. “Look, I get it, you’re the scary lone wolf who doesn’t need backup. But whoever’s doing this? They’re *mocking* you. And that’s—” He caught himself. “That’s *personal.*”
Ari studied him. Benji held his breath.
Then, just when he was sure she was about to walk out:
“You’re right,” she said. “It is.”
And for the first time since he’d met her, Ari *almost* smiled.
---
**The Lieutenant**
Kael found them an hour later, hunched over Benji’s workstation, three empty energy drink cans between them.
“Please tell me you’re not corrupting the child,” he said dryly.
Benji squawked. “I’m *twenty-two*—”
“He’s fine,” Ari said, not looking up from the screen. “Better than fine. He found the backdoor Eclipse used.”
Kael raised an eyebrow. “Did he?”
“Yeah,” Benji said, grinning. “Turns out they left a *literal* backdoor. Like, a string of code labeled ‘backdoor.’ Amateurs.”
Ari snorted.
Kael looked between them, bemused. Then, to Ari: “You’re letting him stay?”
She didn’t hesitate. “He’s useful.”
Benji’s chest swelled. *Useful.* From Ari, that was practically a love confession.
---
**The Prisoner**
Lir watched them through the cell’s camera feed.
He couldn’t hear the audio, but he didn’t need to. The way Ari stood slightly in front of the kid—*protective.* The way the lieutenant hovered at her shoulder—*loyal.*
A team.
A *weakness.*
He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes.
The Hollow Men were coming.
And Ari had just giving the targets.
- Writer
