Chapter 6: Nowhere Is Safe
The safehouse isn't on any map.
No address. No digital footprint. Just an abandoned tenement sealed off after a fire that "officially" killed twelve people who were never identified.
Kael chose it for a reason.
Concrete. Steel. Silence.
Iris sits at a metal table, hands still shaking as she replays the subway footage. Bodies. Guns. Crowe's voice echoing through speakers.
"This will expose him," she says. "This is enough."
Kael shakes his head.
"It's enough to get you killed."
She looks up. "He already tried."
Kael doesn't answer.
He's listening.
Three blocks away, a black van idles.
Inside, men load suppressed weapons with mechanical calm.
Crowe didn't send mercenaries this time.
He sent cleaners.
Kael's HUD flickers again.
Motion sensors.
Tripped.
"Lights off," he whispers.
The room drops into darkness.
Iris's breath catches.
"Kael—"
"Quiet."
The building groans.
Footsteps above them.
Then—
The window explodes inward.
Kael moves instantly, dragging Iris down as bullets shred the wall behind them.
Glass rains like knives.
Kael fires back—controlled, lethal.
Two silhouettes drop.
But more flood in.
Too many.
Smoke fills the hallway.
Infrared lasers cut through the dark.
"Thermal," Kael mutters.
They adapted.
He slams a switch.
The room floods with heat—burners ignite, old pipes vent steam.
Thermal vision goes blind.
Screams echo.
Kael uses them.
Iris crawls, heart pounding, clutching her camera.
A figure appears in front of her.
She freezes.
The man raises his gun—
Kael tackles him from the side, smashing him through a door.
Bone cracks.
Blood sprays.
Kael doesn't stop.
He doesn't recognize himself anymore.
A voice booms through a loudspeaker.
Darius Crowe.
"You disappoint me, Wraith," Crowe says calmly. "I told them to take you alive."
Kael snarls. "You never learn."
Crowe chuckles. "On the contrary. I learned exactly what you care about."
Explosives beep.
Iris's eyes widen.
"Kael—"
"RUN."
The building erupts.
Kael shields Iris again as the floor collapses beneath them.
They fall.
Hard.
Dust. Fire. Screams.
Then silence.
Kael wakes buried under rubble.
Pain everywhere.
He digs with bare hands until he reaches Iris.
She's unconscious.
Alive.
He lifts her, staggering out into the alley as the building burns behind them.
Sirens approach.
Too close.
They don't make it far.
A car screeches to a stop in front of them.
Headlights blind Kael.
A man steps out.
Badge raised.
Detective Elias Thorn.
Kael freezes.
Elias's eyes move from Iris… to the mask… to Kael's stance.
The realization hits like a bullet.
"Kael," Elias says quietly.
Kael doesn't deny it.
He lowers the mask.
Rain pours between them.
"Get her to a hospital," Kael says. "She's not part of this."
Elias's hand trembles on his gun.
"You're under arrest."
Kael meets his eyes.
"For what?" he asks. "Doing your job?"
A beat.
Police sirens close in.
Elias swallows.
"…Go," he says.
Kael hesitates.
Elias steps aside.
"Next time," Elias adds, voice breaking, "I won't."
Kael nods once.
Then he vanishes into the night with Iris in his arms.
From a distant rooftop, Crowe watches the fire burn.
"Good," he murmurs. "Now the city knows."
He turns to his aide.
"Phase two."
END OF CHAPTER 6