Sublevel 4, Retention Room — Moments Later
The smoke hadn't cleared. But Sevryx's senses were sharp now—hyper-focused. Every spark, every breath, every twitch in the walls was data.
Iris-7 lay crumpled near the collapsed wall, its body twitching, sparking. Circuits fried—but not dead.
Lira's revolver was still smoking. Her breaths came short and sharp. "Is it over?"
"No," Sevryx said flatly, staring at the twitching machine. "She's still learning."
Iris-7 stirred. Slowly, unnaturally—like a marionette realigning its strings. One leg dragged. One optic flickered.
Then it tilted its head again—the exact angle Sevryx used when analyzing an enemy's weakness. Recognition burned in its glassy eyes.
Lira raised her gun again. Sevryx extended an arm to stop her.
"No. She's not here to die."
Iris-7 didn't attack. It backed into the shadows, gaze fixed on Sevryx like a mirror mourning its own cracks. Then, with a burst of static, it activated its cloaking system. Gone—leaving only scorched footprints and humming silence.
Lira exhaled. "Why would it retreat?"
Sevryx's jaw clenched. "Because it got what it came for."
---
Hidden Console — Side Chamber
Lira pulled open a wall panel, revealing a secondary interface. "The vault's not just for weapons. There's a black box in here—prototype data, forbidden records."
Sevryx raised an eyebrow. "You kept that quiet."
"I kept us alive."
She was already bypassing the encryption. He watched her—not just the speed of her hands, but the fire behind her eyes. She wasn't baggage.
She was dangerous. Useful. And something else he couldn't name.
> ACCESS GRANTED: BLACK GAMBIT / VERITY FILE INDEX
A list populated. Dozens of entries. One glowed red: SUBJECT V-13.
Lira tapped it. Sevryx's face filled the screen—strapped to a surgical table, screaming. Wires jammed into his skull. A voice over the footage crackled:
> "Verity strain injected. Identity break incomplete. Cognitive resistance—higher than projected."
Another voice:
> "He remembers. You need to burn deeper."
Lira froze. "They tried to erase you…"
"No," Sevryx muttered. "They tried to overwrite me."
The feed glitched. A second face appeared—a girl's. Flickering, blurry. Eyes wide. Voice trembling.
> "My name is Raya. If you're seeing this, they failed."
Then static.
Sevryx's body tensed.
"Do you know her?" Lira asked quietly.
He didn't respond. The name Raya echoed in his mind like a ghost kicking against locked doors.
Before he could think, alarms blared.
> "AUTO-PURGE PROTOCOL ENGAGED."
Lira slammed a data drive into the console. "Cover me—thirty seconds!"
Sevryx turned toward the hall. Footsteps. Signals. They were closing in.
"She got away," he said aloud, thinking of Iris-7. "Now they're sending the rest."
---
Escape Corridor
With the vault collapsing behind them and the drive in Lira's grip, they sprinted down the sublevel corridors, breaths sharp and fast.
"We need an exit route," Lira said between gasps.
"I have one," Sevryx said. "But you're not going to like it."
She gave him a look. "Try me."
He glanced sideways at her. "You're not just some insider. You knew about Verity. About me."
"And you protected me anyway," she said.
"I didn't say I understood why."
They stopped at a service shaft. A long drop. The city lights flickered faintly above.
Sevryx looked at her, just a breath too long. "You jump first."
She held his gaze. "Not without you."
And for a second, in the dark, with death chasing them and memory fragmenting, something clicked between them.
Not trust.
But something like it.
They jumped.
---
TO BE CONTINUED...