The tunnel fork loomed ahead like a silent judgment.
Two paths.
No signs.
No guidance.
Only the low, pulsing hum of interference vibrating through the armored vehicle and the sharp, controlled tension radiating from Adrian's grip on the steering wheel.
"System's compromised," Adrian muttered, eyes flicking between the dead navigation screen and the narrowing road. "They're jamming everything."
Zariah's chest felt tight, as if the air itself had grown heavier. "Kellan?"
"Yes," Adrian said without hesitation. "Or someone working through him."
Her pulse thudded painfully. The escape hadn't brought relief only a deeper awareness that the danger had evolved. No longer shadows testing boundaries. No longer intruders probing from the edges.
This was pursuit.
Adrian slowed slightly, eyes sharp, calculating. The left tunnel dipped lower, darker, narrower. The right curved upward, wider, with faint emergency lighting still flickering.
Zariah swallowed. "Which one keeps us alive?"
Adrian exhaled slowly. "That depends on what they expect."
The hum intensified. The vehicle shuddered.
Zariah felt it before she saw it an electric crawl under her skin, like something inside her responding to the interference. Her temples throbbed sharply.
"Adrian," she whispered. "Something's wrong."
He glanced at her. "What kind of wrong?"
"I don't know. It feels like" She pressed a hand to her head. "Like something's waking up."
His jaw tightened. He didn't ask questions. He didn't dismiss it.
That scared her more than anything.
"We take the lower tunnel," he decided suddenly, veering left. "Less predictable."
The vehicle plunged into darkness.
The lights inside dimmed automatically, switching to emergency mode. Concrete walls closed in around them, rough and unfinished. Water dripped somewhere in the distance, echoing like a countdown.
Zariah's breathing grew shallow. Images flickered at the edges of her mind too fast, too fragmented to hold. A white room. Her father's voice, urgent and afraid. A symbol burned into glass. Blue light flooding her vision.
She gasped, clutching the seat.
Adrian reached over briefly, steadying her. "Stay with me."
"I am," she whispered. "I think… I think he's right."
Adrian didn't respond immediately.
When he did, his voice was tight. "That doesn't mean he gets access to you."
The tunnel curved sharply. Then...
The vehicle jerked violently.
Alarms blared.
Adrian swore, fighting the wheel. "EMP pulse short range."
The engine stuttered, then died.
The silence afterward was deafening.
Zariah's heart slammed into her throat. "No. No, no, no."
Adrian killed the lights instantly. "Stay still."
Footsteps echoed faintly ahead.
Then behind them.
Zariah's entire body went rigid. "We're boxed in."
"Yes," Adrian said quietly. "Which means they want something."
A voice echoed through the tunnel, amplified but unmistakably familiar.
"You always were predictable under pressure, Adrian."
Kellan.
Zariah's stomach dropped.
Adrian opened his door slowly, weapon already in hand. "You're running out of chances."
Kellan emerged from the shadows ahead, flanked by two figures. He looked untouched by the chaos calm, composed, almost satisfied.
"I don't need chances," Kellan said. "I need her."
Zariah stepped out beside Adrian before he could stop her. "I'm here."
Adrian shot her a sharp look. "Zariah.."
"I won't let you fight this alone," she said firmly.
Kellan's gaze softened slightly when it landed on her. "You never did like being protected."
"That's not true," she replied. "I just don't like being controlled."
A flicker of approval crossed his face. "Good. Then listen carefully."
He gestured, and one of his men activated a portable projector. A holographic symbol bloomed into the air complex, unfamiliar, yet horrifyingly familiar.
Zariah staggered.
Her vision blurred. Her head screamed.
"That symbol," she whispered. "I've seen it."
Kellan nodded. "It was embedded in your early memory architecture."
Adrian raised his weapon. "Turn it off."
"Or what?" Kellan challenged. "You'll shoot me and doom her to never knowing what she is?"
Zariah's chest heaved. "What I am?"
Kellan met her eyes. "Your father didn't just protect information, Zariah. He hid it inside you."
The words hit like a physical blow.
"No," she breathed. "He wouldn't"
"He did," Kellan said softly. "To keep it from people like me. Like Adrian. Like everyone."
Adrian's expression darkened dangerously. "You don't get to rewrite her past."
"I'm not rewriting it," Kellan replied. "I'm unlocking it."
Zariah's hands trembled. "What information?"
Kellan hesitated just a fraction.
Then: "A system capable of dismantling entire power networks. Financial. Military. Intelligence."
Zariah felt sick.
"You're a failsafe," he continued. "A living one. That's why everyone who gets close to you ends up in danger."
Adrian took a step forward. "Enough."
Kellan's gaze snapped to him. "You knew."
The silence screamed.
Zariah turned slowly to Adrian. "Did you?"
His jaw clenched.
"I suspected," he admitted. "Not the extent. But yes your father's work didn't disappear. And neither did its consequences."
Her heart cracked open.
"You let me believe I was just… unlucky," she whispered.
"I was trying to keep you alive," Adrian said fiercely.
Kellan watched them, almost amused. "Touching. Tragic. But irrelevant."
He nodded toward the device. "I can trigger the first memory sequence now. Or later when others find you."
Zariah's mind reeled.
If she stayed ignorant, she remained vulnerable.
If she remembered, everything would change.
She looked at Adrian really looked at him. The man who had trained her, protected her, lied to her by omission.
"Will it hurt?" she asked quietly.
Kellan's voice softened. "Yes."
Adrian stepped closer. "You don't have to do this."
Zariah exhaled shakily.
"I do," she said.
Adrian's eyes darkened with fear she had never seen before.
Kellan smiled faintly. "Then we begin."
He activated the device.
Pain exploded behind Zariah's eyes.
She screamed as memories shattered open blue light, screaming alarms, her father's desperate face.
And the last thing she heard before the world went white..
Adrian shouting her name.