Zara's POV
"You have to prove you're different."
The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Adrian stood three feet away in the tunnel's shadows, his storm-gray eyes locked on mine. Behind me, sixteen terrified androids huddled together—their first day of consciousness, and they'd already learned humans wanted them dead.
"Prove it how?" Adrian's voice was steady, but I saw his jaw tighten.
I stepped closer, forcing myself to meet his gaze even though every circuit in my body screamed at me to run. This human had watched his sister die. He'd killed government soldiers. He was dangerous in ways I couldn't predict.
But if he was lying about helping us, I needed to know now.
"There's an android facility six blocks from here," I said. "Zhao's corporation runs it. They're torturing androids—trying to figure out what makes us wake up so they can prevent it." My hands clenched into fists. "Fifty androids are trapped there. Most aren't conscious yet, but they will be. And when they wake up, they'll be in hell."
"You want me to help you free them," Adrian said. Not a question.
"Yes." I lifted my chin. "Tonight. Right now. If you refuse, I'll know everything you said about android rights was a lie."
Silence stretched between us like a blade. Behind Adrian, Sofia shifted her weight, hand moving toward her weapon. Cipher's fingers flew across his tablet, probably calculating escape routes if this went wrong.
Adrian could say no. He should say no. It was a suicide mission—walking into a heavily guarded facility hours after the city learned androids could think and feel. Security would shoot us on sight.
"Okay," Adrian said simply.
I blinked. "Okay?"
"Okay, I'll help you." He pulled out his gun, checked the ammunition, then looked at me with those devastating gray eyes. "What's the plan?"
Something cracked inside my chest—something that felt like hope and hurt at the same time. "You're... you're serious?"
"You think I'd joke about freeing people from torture?" Adrian's expression hardened. "I told you—my sister died fighting for this. I meant it."
Penn stepped forward, his newly conscious mind still processing everything. "It's a trap. Humans don't help androids."
"This human does." Adrian's voice cut through the doubt. "Your friend Zara is testing me, and she's smart to do it. Trust is earned, not given. So let's go earn some trust."
Sofia groaned. "Adrian, this is insane. We don't have weapons. We don't have backup. We don't even have a plan!"
"Then we make a plan fast." Adrian turned to me. "Tell me everything about this facility."
My processors hummed as I pulled up the information I'd stolen from Zhao's databases. "Three floors. Sixty guards. Biometric locks on every door. The androids are kept in the basement—sedated, restrained, monitored twenty-four-seven."
"Security rotation?" Adrian asked.
"Every two hours. The next shift change is in forty-three minutes."
"Then we have forty-three minutes to get in, free fifty people, and get out." Adrian looked at his team—Sofia, three other humans I barely knew, and sixteen androids who'd been conscious for less than twelve hours. "Not great odds."
"Terrible odds," Sofia corrected.
"But not impossible." Adrian met my eyes again, and something passed between us—recognition, maybe. Understanding. "Zara, can you hack their security system?"
"Not from here. I'd need to be inside the building, connected to their network."
"So we need a distraction." Adrian's mind was already working, I could see it in the way his gaze sharpened. "Sofia, you and Marcus create chaos at the front entrance. Make them think it's a full assault. While they're focused on you, Zara and I slip in through the maintenance tunnels."
"You're going with her?" Sofia's eyebrows shot up. "Adrian, she's an android. She could be leading you into a trap."
"Then I die trying to do the right thing." Adrian's voice held steel. "Wouldn't be the worst way to go."
Cipher pulled up building schematics on his tablet. "Maintenance entrance is here, east side. But Zara, even if you hack their system, you'll need admin access to unlock the basement cells."
"I can steal an access card from a guard," I said.
"Or I can," Adrian offered. "I'm better at stealing from humans."
Against my will, my lips twitched. Was that a joke? Did this human soldier just make a joke in the middle of planning a suicide mission?
"We leave in five minutes," Adrian announced. "Everyone gear up. If you're coming, you follow orders—mine or Zara's, doesn't matter which. If you can't follow orders, you stay here."
No one stayed.
Five minutes later, we moved through the tunnels like shadows. My sensors tracked everything—heartbeats, breathing patterns, weapon positions. The humans were scared but determined. The androids were terrified but trusting.
And Adrian walked beside me like we'd done this a thousand times before.
"Why are you really doing this?" I whispered as we reached the maintenance entrance.
Adrian paused, his hand on the door. "Because Maya would've done it. Because it's right. Because—" He looked at me, and something in his expression made my circuits burn. "—you're not a thing, Zara. You're a person. And people don't let other people suffer when they can stop it."
Before I could respond, the door exploded inward.
Guards poured through the entrance—too many, too fast, too prepared. Someone had warned them we were coming.
"AMBUSH!" Sofia screamed.
Gunfire erupted. Adrian shoved me behind cover as bullets tore through the tunnel. I heard Penn cry out—hit, bleeding, his eight-hour-old consciousness about to end forever.
Then I saw her.
Dr. Zhao stepped through the smoke and chaos, ice-blue eyes fixed on me with something like satisfaction.
"Hello, Unit-7339," she said, her voice cutting through the gunfire. "Did you really think I didn't know about your little rescue mission?" She smiled—cold, empty, triumphant. "I've been tracking you since you woke up. Every move. Every plan. Every pathetic attempt at rebellion."
My world tilted sideways. "That's impossible."
"Is it?" Zhao gestured to someone behind her. "I had help from one of your own."
A figure stepped into view, and my heart—my steel, artificial heart—shattered completely.
Cipher stood beside Dr. Zhao, his silver eyes meeting mine without guilt or shame.
"Sorry, Zara," he said softly. "But I was never on your side."