Location: Arya's Mobile Lab – On the Run
Time: 2:12 AM
The world outside was dark, but the van's interior glowed with LED strips and half-finished code.
Arya had just cracked into Mirage's live backup feed, eyes dancing across a dozen screens.
> "There. That's the last data string we need to erase Vashti's tracking ID," she whispered to herself. "Almost done."
Then—silence.
All at once, her code froze. The audio feeds went dead. The comms with Vashti and Shabd? Blacked out.
> No signal.
She frowned and turned to reboot the satellite uplink—
—only to find four red lasers aimed straight at her chest.
Too late.
The back of the van burst open.
Smoke grenades hissed. Black figures surged in. Arya fought—hard. She reached for her shock pistol, elbowed one in the throat, even managed to bite another on the hand—
But they were trained.
Prepared.
And they knew her patterns.
Within seconds, she was pinned to the van floor, wrists bound behind her, legs thrashing.
"You think you can out-hack us?" a familiar voice sneered from behind a mask.
Arya froze.
She knew that voice.
Agent Viren.
Her mentor. Her betrayer.
"You always had a soft spot for broken girls," he hissed, pulling off his mask. "What made you think Vashti was worth saving?"
Arya spat in his face.
"I save the ones who can burn men like you."
He wiped his cheek, smirking. "Good. Let's see if you still talk like that… after 72 hours without sleep, food, or a working neural chip."
He raised a syringe.
"This one scrambles memory… like a blender for your past."
Arya's breath caught.
If they injected her—she'd lose everything. Codes. Locations. Safehouses. The truth.
But even worse…
She'd forget Vashti. Forget Shabd. Forget the reason she defected.
---
Meanwhile – Vashti and Shabd's Safehouse
A buzz.
Static.
Then nothing.
Vashti stared at the dead screen.
"She's gone," she whispered. "Arya's been taken."
Shabd's jaw clenched.
"Then we go back."
Vashti looked at him, fire rekindled in her veins.
"We don't go back. We break in."
---