Lennox Park,
Lennox has loved Graves Monroe for six years and watched him fall for Aurora Vance in forty-eight hours.
Saturday, 10:47 PM. She sits in the maintenance van three blocks from Axiom Tower. Rain hammers the metal roof. Her fingers check the tactical vest again. Third time in ten minutes. Earpiece. Cable cutters. Backup phone. Everything where it should be. Control is all she has left.
"Security rotation changes in eight minutes." Her voice comes out flat. Professional. "Guard shift overlap lasts ninety seconds. That's our window."
Across from her, Rory picks at a practice lock. The girl's hands shake. She's been doing it nonstop since they left the safehouse. Some anxiety thing. One of those quirks Graves probably finds endearing.
Lennox finds it annoying.
Graves stands at the back doors, staring out at Axiom Tower through tinted windows. That leather jacket he's worn for eight years hangs loose on his frame. He's thinner than when Lennox met him. She was nineteen. Fresh out of hacking charges that should have landed her in prison. He gave her purpose. Made her matter.
She fell for him somewhere around week two.
"Graves." Lennox keeps her tone level. "You listening?"
He turns. Those amber eyes find hers. "I'm here."
"Are you? Because you've been staring at that building like it personally offended you."
"Someone wearing Aurora's face was inside four hours ago." His jaw tightens. "Stealing data we can't track. That offends me."
The practice lock clicks in Rory's hands. She stares at it like she forgot she was holding the thing. "You think it's connected to the loop breaking down?"
"Everything's connected." Graves moves to the monitors on the van wall. Six screens show live feeds from Axiom's cameras. "Someone's been in this loop since the beginning. Changing things. Hiding. Until tonight."
"Why show themselves now?" Lennox asks.
"Maybe they didn't mean to. Maybe the loop falling apart affects them too." He pulls up earlier footage. The fake Rory walking through Holden's office. Calm. Confident. "Or maybe they want us to know."
Lennox checks her watch. Six minutes. Her stomach twists. "We need to move."
They exit into rain that soaks through her coat immediately. Cold. Smelling like asphalt and exhaust. The kind of rain that makes Seattle feel like drowning.
Axiom Tower rises forty-two stories above them. Glass and steel and money. Lennox has worked inside for two years. Climbed from junior analyst to head of security through lies and forged credentials. Every single day pretending. Every single day hating Holden Carr a little more.
The employee entrance. Rory's badge swipes. Green beep. Door unlocks.
Too easy. It's always easy at first.
Inside, the lobby sits empty. Night shift means minimal crew. Exactly how Lennox scheduled it. She leads them past reception toward the elevators. Her badge opens the restricted panel.
"Thirty-fourth floor," she says, pressing the button. "Guards think I'm doing server checks."
The elevator rises smooth and silent. Expensive, like everything in Axiom.
Graves stands close to Rory. Not touching but almost. Protective. Like he thinks she might disappear. Lennox has seen this before. In his notes about other loops. Other versions where things went wrong.
Loop nine, Lennox died. He reset everything. Chose to save her.
But he doesn't look at Lennox like he looks at Rory.
Thirty-fourth floor. Empty hallway. Fluorescent lights humming. Server room at the end. Lennox's badge opens it.
The mainframe fills the space with heat and white noise. Rows of servers. ORACLE lives somewhere in these machines. Proof of Holden's deals. Everything they need.
Rory moves to a terminal. Her fingers fly across keys. Faster than anyone Lennox has seen. The girl mutters under her breath. Python syntax. That coding language thing she does.
"Encryption's tighter than expected," Rory says. "Military grade."
"Can you break it?" Graves asks.
"Yes. Thirty minutes though."
Lennox pulls out her phone. "I can loop security footage for thirty minutes. After that, monitoring notices the repeat."
"Then we have thirty minutes." Graves positions himself by the door. Gun drawn.
Lennox should watch the hallway. Should monitor guards. Should do her job.
Instead she watches Graves watch Rory.
His shoulders relax when she's near. His hand moves toward the damaged one when he's anxious. Checking it's still there. He breathes different. Steadier.
Six years. Lennox gave him six years. Saved his life four times. Killed for him twice. Lied to everyone.
But Rory kissed him once in some loop and he's been gone ever since.
"Got something." Rory's voice is tight. "ORACLE's source code. Over two million lines."
"Copy everything," Graves says.
The download crawls. Progress bar moving slow. Lennox watches it. Watches Rory. Watches Graves watching Rory.
Hating all of it.
Twenty-eight minutes. Download completes.
"Holden's contracts are here." Rory scrolls through files. "Six countries. Russia. China. North Korea. Authorization for mass surveillance. He's selling it as counter-terrorism software but the fine print says monitoring dissidents. Political opponents."
Her voice shakes. Lennox almost feels bad for her. Almost.
"That's what I've been telling you," Graves says quiet. "Holden thinks this is ethical. Order through surveillance saves lives. He believes it."
"I built the foundation." Rory's hands stop moving. "The facial recognition software. He weaponized my work."
"You didn't know."
"I should have."
Graves moves closer. Not touching. Just there. Present.
The moment stretches. Intimate. Makes Lennox's chest ache.
She clears her throat. "Download's done. We need to broadcast before someone notices."
Rory transfers files to encrypted drives. Three copies. Smart.
They retrace their steps. Elevator down. Empty lobby. Out into rain.
Back in the van, Graves sets up broadcast equipment. Multiple streams. News outlets. Wikileaks. Watchdogs. The files will go live everywhere. No stopping them.
"Ready?" he asks Rory.
She nods.
Graves hits enter.
Progress bars appear. Fifteen percent. Twenty. Thirty.
The screen glitches.
Upload corrupts. Every file. Every stream. Frozen at thirty-three percent.
"What just happened?" Rory demands.
Graves types frantic. "Someone's in our system. Remote intrusion. Deleting files."
"That's impossible."
"They're breaking our encryption faster than we built it." His face goes pale. "Someone knew we'd succeed. They predicted our moves. They've been waiting."
Lennox's phone buzzes. Security alert. Her blood goes cold. "FBI tactical teams just breached Axiom's lobby. Webb's leading them."
"How did they know?"
"Someone told them." Lennox pulls up schematics. "We move. Now."
They abandon the van. Run through rain and sirens getting closer.
"Pike Place tunnels," Graves says. "Old smuggling routes. Connect to the waterfront."
They cut through alleys. The market sits closed. Empty. Graves leads them to a maintenance door. Lennox's picks make quick work.
The tunnel opens below. Narrow. Low ceilings. Brick walls slick with damp. Claustrophobic.
Graves stops.
"We have to keep going," Lennox says. "They're right behind us."
His breathing changes. Shallow. Too fast. Hand gripping the wall.
PTSD attack. Confined spaces. The kidnapping. Nine months in a basement. Lennox knows the triggers.
But Rory reaches him first.
She moves close. Not touching. Voice dropping soft.
"Python," she whispers. "Logical problem solving. For loop initialization. Range function parameters."
His breathing stutters.
"JavaScript. Event listeners waiting. Callback functions executing."
His grip loosens.
"Assembly language. Binary conversion. You're not in the basement. You're here. Count the bricks. Seven rows. Eleven across. Focus on numbers."
His breathing evens. Eyes finding hers.
The intimacy hurts to watch.
Lennox understands then. Really understands. She already lost. Maybe six years ago. Maybe loop twenty-two. Maybe tonight watching him break and watching only Rory know how to fix him.
"We need to move," Lennox says. Hollow.
They push deeper. Footsteps echo behind. FBI closing in. The waterfront exit ahead. Salt air.
They burst onto the pier. Boats rocking. Rain harder now.
Lennox's phone buzzes.
The message freezes her blood.
"Graves." She shows him the screen. Security alert from the bookstore above their safehouse. Motion detected. "We need to get back. Now."
"Why?"
"Someone's inside our safehouse. Waiting for us.