ONE LAST CHANCE

THE ENEMY INSIDE III

UNDERGROUND FACILITY - UNKNOWN LOCATION

The facility didn't exist on any map.

Rows of servers hummed in blue-lit silence. Biometric scanners secured every door. Only five people in the world had access to this level. Evelyn Shaw was one of them-and the only one bold enough to breach Protocol Zero.

The decrypted file was uploaded into the mainframe. Lines of code scrolled faster than the eye could follow-financial records, communication logs, tagged images, and audio extractions.

But it wasn't just Ava Sinclair's file.

It was the Red List.

A buried dossier connected to the Sinclair family estate, compiled by Ava during her years off-grid. A list of powerful names, all tied to one thing:

The Echelon Syndicate.

Global elites laundering billions through political tech firms. Using shell NGOs to move illicit arms. Names hidden so deep, no one dared speak them.

Until now.

Evelyn watched the code cascade and smiled.

Because Phase Echo wasn't about taking down Ava.

It was about activating her.

---

SAFE HOUSE VAULT

Julian's shirt was stained dark crimson, but the bleeding had stopped. Ava's hands trembled slightly as she cleaned the graze and wrapped the gauze tighter.

"You keep this place stocked like a Bond villain," she muttered.

Julian offered a weak smirk. "Learned the hard way."

But they both stared at the frozen screen-at the frame where the intruder removed a flash drive from a secret drawer neither of them had touched.

"That was my encrypted drive," Ava said quietly. "Aria gave it to me. She said it contained insurance... a dead man's switch."

Julian's voice was sharp. "You didn't think to tell me?"

"I didn't know what was on it!" Ava snapped. "She said never open it unless I had no one left to trust. I didn't even know you knew about it."

"I didn't," Julian said. He rubbed his temple, pacing despite the pain. "But whoever took that file-they knew what to look for. Which means..."

"They've been watching me longer than I thought."

Julian's eyes met hers. "This goes deeper than the tech scandal. This isn't just about your past or mine."

Ava moved to the keyboard. She accessed the internal system and pulled up a secondary log-entries hidden even from Julian.

"You said the intruders weren't here to kill us," she said. "So what were they trying to unlock?"

The system blinked.

A hidden file opened. An old one.

And there it was.

A live data beacon-sent not from the vault, but from a hidden tracker planted somewhere inside Ava's belongings.

She stared.

"I've been tagged."

Julian froze. "You're the Trojan horse."

The implications hit them both at once. Whoever was after them-whoever Evelyn worked for-was using Ava to get inside something. Someone. Or everyone.

"Julian..." Ava whispered. "What the hell did Aria give me?"

---

ELSEWHERE - DOWNTOWN ROOFTOP

Aria stood on the edge of the rooftop, watching the skyline blaze in early dawn.

She held a burner phone in one hand and a black card chip in the other-the twin to the one just stolen.

She slid the chip into a custom drive and plugged it into her phone.

A loading screen appeared: AUTHORIZING PHASE ECHO // GENESIS KEY DETECTED

"Not yet," Aria said softly. "Not until I know what Evelyn's endgame is."

But deep down, she feared it wasn't just Evelyn's game anymore.

It was Ava's.

And Ava had no idea what power she was about to awaken.

___

Safe House - Lower Corridor

The silence in the hallway was wrong.

Too still. Too... watched.

Ava and Julian stepped cautiously beyond the vault, the tension stretched thin as wire. Julian had armed himself with a sleek matte pistol from a secured panel in the wall. Ava held her own weight, a small tactical blade hidden in her palm, just in case.

They weren't alone.

Not anymore.

Ava paused by the stairwell. "That camera-wasn't it panning before?"

Julian looked. The small black eye of the hallway cam was frozen, pointed directly at them.

Motionless.

Dead.

A subtle shift in the air made Ava spin-

click.

Julian grabbed her and pulled her flat against the wall just as a tripwire tensed in the threshold. A split second later, the corridor flooded with blinding strobe light and static alarms.

"MOVE!" he barked, dragging her down the side tunnel.

The hidden passage led to the second sublevel-meant as an escape route in case of siege. They ducked into it as reinforced shutters slammed shut above them, sealing the upper levels.

"Whoever this is," Ava panted, "they want more than the drive."

Julian looked over his shoulder, jaw tight. "They want us alive."

They burst into the sublevel landing-and stopped cold.

Waiting for them was a figure in combat black, face covered by a tactical mask. Not one of Evelyn's crew. This one moved with precision, not chaos. Measured. Professional.

The figure raised both hands. "I'm not here to hurt you."

Julian didn't lower the gun. "Then you picked the wrong front door."

The voice was calm, female, and British. "My name is Sage Ryland. I'm a fixer. And if you want to survive what's coming next, you'll want to listen."

---

Elsewhere - Echelon Syndicate Blacksite - Location Unknown

Evelyn Shaw stood before a wall of monitors.

Each displayed a different data stream: biometric pings, encrypted networks, satellite pulses. One feed showed Sage standing before Julian and Aria in the safe house.

"She's made contact," one of the masked technicians said.

Evelyn didn't speak. Just narrowed her eyes.

"Should I engage Phase Delta?" the tech asked.

She finally looked away from the screen. "No."

"But-"

Evelyn turned to face him. Her voice dropped to a razor's edge. "If Sage wanted them dead, they'd already be bleeding on my floor. She has her own orders."

A pause.

"Let's see who she's working for before we burn the whole board."

---

Safe House - Interrogation Room

Sage paced in front of them, arms crossed, while Ava sat on the table edge and Julian stood, still gripping the gun.

"I've been tracking Evelyn Shaw for three years," Sage began. "Her group-Echelon-isn't a cult. It's an infrastructure. Deep money, deeper secrets. They've embedded themselves in every institution that matters-government, defense, media."

Julian frowned. "Why tell us?"

Sage's gaze flicked to Ava. "Because she's the key."

Ava's mouth went dry. "To what?"

"Evelyn wants to trigger Phase Echo," Sage said. "A release of data that will bring governments to their knees. But it requires a seed algorithm-one Aria Sinclair embedded in a drive she gave you. Ava, that code doesn't just leak data-it rewrites systems. Whoever activates it first can control the next world order."

Julian swore.

"And the worst part?" Sage continued. "Evelyn doesn't want control."

"She wants collapse," Ava whispered.

Sage nodded grimly. "Exactly. She thinks the world needs to be reset."

Ava swallowed the rising nausea in her throat. "So what now?"

"You find Aria," Sage said. "Before Evelyn does."

Julian narrowed his eyes. "And what's your angle?"

Sage looked at them both. "I'm here because my sister was murdered by Evelyn Shaw. I don't care about politics. I want blood."

And then-suddenly-the emergency light above them began to flash.

INTRUSION DETECTED - SECTOR C.

Sage turned toward the vault wall. "They found us."

---

Cut To: Aria Sinclair - Abandoned Station

She felt it.

The pulse in the chip.

The moment Evelyn pinged the Genesis Key, Aria's clone drive reacted. Lines of dormant code came to life across her laptop. A countdown began-silent, unrelenting.

GENESIS PROTOCOL ENGAGED. 71:18:42 REMAINING.

Seventy-one hours until the data releases-unless Aria finds the failsafe.

Unless Ava does.

Unless one of them becomes the new god of a shattered world.

Aria looked up at the skyline, storm clouds forming.

"Your move, Evelyn."

___

Safe House - Control Hub - 5:44 a.m.

Red light bathed the room.

Sage snapped open a case embedded in the floor panel, pulling out a pair of modified pulse grenades and a second sidearm, tossing it to Ava.

"You ever fire one of these?" she asked briskly.

Aria caught the weapon, fingers tightening around it like muscle memory. "Not in years."

Sage smirked. "Then don't miss."

Julian was already at the terminal, trying to override the lockdown, fingers flying across the touchscreen. "They breached from the underground access tunnel-sector C," he muttered. "That entrance was supposed to be sealed."

Sage growled, "Nothing's sealed from Evelyn Shaw. She built the tunnels beneath this city."

"Then this whole place is compromised," Ava said. "We need to move."

As if in response, a metallic groan echoed through the lower sublevels. The lights flickered. The temperature dropped.

Sage glanced at Julian. "There's a second escape-north corridor. But it's not easy."

"Define not easy," he snapped.

"You'd have to go through the Black Room."

Julian paled slightly. "That's a kill box."

Sage's look was grim. "Only if you're on the wrong side of it."

Behind them, a hidden wall panel hissed open-and a sleek black drone floated into the room.

No markings. No sound.

Just a soft red light pulsing from its optic core.

"DOWN!" Sage shouted, tackling Ava as Julian dove left.

The drone released a high-frequency pulse-

-and the room exploded into light and sound.

---

Echelon Syndicate Command - Upper Manhattan - 5:47 a.m.

Evelyn Shaw stood barefoot in the center of a soundproofed suite overlooking the city skyline. The glass was triple-reinforced, but she touched it like tracing the shape of a ghost.

Behind her, her second-in-command, Cassian Vire, adjusted the cuffs of his gray suit.

"The drone made visual," he said. "No confirmed kills."

"Yet," Evelyn whispered.

Cassian waited.

"Activate the Basilisk protocol," she said softly.

His breath hitched. "That's not ready-"

She turned slowly. Her eyes were cold.

"Neither were they."

Cassian nodded once and walked away.

Alone again, Evelyn looked out over New York like a queen watching her kingdom catch fire.

---

Safe House - North Corridor (Black Room) - 5:52 a.m.

Blood. Smoke. Gunfire.

Julian and Sage moved in tandem, covering each other with brutal precision. Ava followed behind, fighting her instinct to flinch every time the sharp bark of gunfire rang out.

They reached the Black Room-a chamber so dark it swallowed light. No windows, no cameras. Just echoes and shadows.

Julian punched in the code. The door opened.

Inside, rows of old servers, data vaults, and encrypted terminals lined the walls like tombstones. This room had once housed secrets no government dared acknowledge.

Sage moved quickly to a steel panel, unscrewing the bolts. "Behind here-there's a service tunnel. Leads to the surface."

Ava turned to Julian. "Wait."

He followed her gaze-to the opposite wall.

Someone had left a message, hastily scrawled in blood on the server glass:

"TRUST NO ONE. NOT EVEN HIM".

Ava's skin went cold.

She looked at Julian. "What the hell is this?"

"I don't know."

But something in his eyes flickered. Something unspoken.

Before she could press, the panel popped free-and a narrow tunnel opened before them.

Sage gave one last look behind them.

"We run. Now."

---

Evelyn's Command Center - 5:55 a.m.

Cassian returned, holding a slim black phone.

"It's done," he said.

Evelyn took it and pressed play.

Audio crackled to life.

Julian Cross.

Project Basilisk. Confirmed directive breach.

Status: Primary Asset-Compromised.

Evelyn smiled.

"It begins."