{ Mia }
I counted six cameras. Two were fake. One had a blind spot.
That was my exit, or my weapon. I hadn't decided yet.
From the corner, still wearing Jace's skin, I stood motionless, arms crossed like I belonged. The others paced. Waited. Trusted the silence.
But I knew better.
Every second was a countdown.
To exposure.
To violence.
To the moment I stopped pretending and started rewriting the rules.
The taller agent yawned. "This warehouse gives me the creeps."
"Keep it together," the other muttered. "Boss'll be here in twenty."
Twenty minutes.
I flicked my eyes to the clone. Still out cold. Still breathing. Good. She could hold a little longer.
The agent near the console tapped a few keys, checking surveillance feeds. My pulse skipped when one camera, the third, upper left corner, glitched for half a second.
Perfect.
I slid toward the edge of the room, staying in shadow, passing behind a stack of rusted crates. They didn't notice. Why would they? I was "Jace." I belonged.
In the blind spot now.
I rolled my shoulder, felt the familiar press of my last device under the tactical vest: a flash-crack EMP charge. Small. Silent. Just enough.
I placed it behind a crate and whispered, "Scarlett, time it."
Three minutes. Her voice ticked in my ear.
They won't know what hit them.
I backed into the light, arms folded again. Just in time for the side door to creak open.
Footsteps echoed.
Not the boss. Yet.
But someone worse.
The Cleaner.
Black gloves. Blank face. No name, no rank, just orders. His presence sucked the warmth out of the air like a vacuum.
He stared at the clone, then at each of us. His gaze landed on me.
I didn't blink.
"You. Status?"
"Stable. Contained," I said, lowering my voice to match Jace's usual dull growl. "She screamed during extraction. Got a dose. She's quiet now."
He nodded once. "Don't touch her again. The boss wants her conscious soon."
He turned and walked away.
One minute, thirty seconds.
I shifted closer to the clone's side, just out of reach but ready. When the lights dropped, I'd have maybe ten seconds before full chaos.
Ten seconds to free her.
Ten seconds to disappear.
Ten seconds to show them:
They never had control.
They never had me.
00:10.
I glanced at the clock embedded in my visor. Ten seconds.
The Cleaner leaned against the wall again, arms folded like a statue. The others were fidgeting, bored. Complacent.
They thought they had a girl in cuffs.
Not a storm waiting to crack open.
00:06.
I edged half a step closer to the clone, just enough to obscure the angle of her wrists from the cameras.
00:03.
I slid my hand beneath the edge of the table and touched the cuff mechanism.
00:01.
I whispered, "Now."
00:00.
The EMP detonation was silent, no flash, no bang.But the effect was instant. The lights died. Screens blacked out. Comms hissed to static.
Darkness swallowed the room.
I moved.
Dropped the Jace illusion like a curtain falling.
They couldn't see me, but I could see them. Scarlett's infrared lenses flared to life in my contact lenses, painting them in cold blue outlines.
The Cleaner swore. "Lights down—check—"
Too late.
I grabbed the table, twisted hard. One of the agents lunged toward the sound, but I was already behind him. A chop to the neck, he collapsed.
Two steps. I reached the clone.
I disabled the cuffs manually, click, click, click. She slumped forward. I caught her before she hit the floor.
"Scarlett, how long before the boss arrives?"
" He's already been alerted, six minutes, max."
" I need more time. Access the wearhouses security mainframe and buy me some time."
" On it."
" Jace! Activate emergency lights! Now!" One of the men ordered urgently.
Nothing happened.
Scarlett whispered in my ear, "Security mainframe's offline. I looped the backup generators. They're blind."
I grinned. "Good girl."
A beam of a flashlight swept by my head. I ducked, rolled, and shoved the clone toward the open duct Scarlett mapped earlier. She was half-awake now, dazed, groaning.
"On your feet. We move or we die."
The Cleaner's silhouette loomed near the smoke. I tossed a flash pellet, real this time. A white burst lit the room like lightning. Shouts. Coughs. Gunshots into air.
I dragged the clone up the ladder. Her fingers clutched mine weakly. A bullet pinged off the rung below my foot. Close.
We hit the duct. Tight. Hot. The metal groaned with every move. But we were in. I shoved a jamming node behind me, small, sticky, pulsing red.
"That'll fry their trackers for two blocks," Scarlett confirmed. "You've got five minutes of noise."
Five minutes.
I crawled like my life depended on it. Because it did.
We burst out onto the roof. Cold air slapped my face. Distant sirens howled, someone called reinforcements anyway.
I scanned the skyline. Spotted the decoy van I'd stashed earlier.
We ran.
Halfway there, the clone stumbled. I caught her again. My shoulder screamed in protest.
Then:
"Mia," Scarlett hissed. "You're not alone."
I spun.
On the far end of the rooftop, silhouetted against the moon, him.
Not the Cleaner. Worse.
The Boss.
He was early. Too early.
He raised his hand. Something in his palm pulsed, electric blue. A device I didn't recognize.
Scarlett couldn't identify it either. "That's new. I'm not able to decode it."
I stared him down. "Time to improvise."
The wind whipped across the rooftop, carrying dust and danger.
He stepped forward. Slow. Controlled. Not a man in a hurry, because predators never are.
The device in his hand glowed again, casting brief pulses across the rooftop. I adjusted my stance, instinctively shifting the clone behind me.
"Give up already," the boss said, voice smooth. Unhurried. "You don't know what you're getting into."
I narrowed my eyes. "Tell me what am I getting into ?"
He didn't answer. Just took another step forward.
I scanned him, height average, build lean but armored, face hidden behind a matte-black visor. Not even Scarlett could pierce it.
But there was something about the way he moved. Calm. Calculated.
Too calm for someone who just lost power to an entire warehouse.
He wasn't just another handler.
He was something else.
"Scarlett," I whispered. "Any ID yet?"
A pause. Then: "Still masked. No heat signature leaks. He's... trained. Cloaked."
I gritted my teeth. "Great."
"Scarlett, buy me some time, I need to reintegrate. She's not just a copy. She's me. And if we stay apart too long, we both break."