Nova ran.
Her boots echoed through the lower docks of Sector 9, where the city's synthetic pulse slowed to a near-death crawl. No lights. Just steam, rust, and shadows that swallowed sound. Above her, neon signs flickered—foreign words half-erased by time. The zone was off-grid, officially condemned.
Unofficially, it was a hive of ghosts.
Somewhere in this forgotten steel graveyard was her target: Cipher, a rogue digital manipulator who once hacked into a vampire bloodbank and sold coordinates to hunters. Now, he ran a section of the Whisper Net—the darknet's physical interface. His skills were unmatched. His paranoia worse.
Ash wanted him tested. Pushed. Broken, if necessary.
Nova was good.But Ash was better.
Two hours earlier, Ash stood alone in the freight station's underground vault, lights dimmed, a map glowing across a digital table in front of him. His eyes tracked movements Nova hadn't noticed. Pressure points she hadn't touched.
"She'll go in direct," he said softly, tapping a spot on the map. "Just as expected."
On another screen, Cipher's movements played out like clockwork—his route, his paranoia patterns, even his false escape routes designed to fool bounty hunters.
Ash leaned back, red eyes calm.He already knew Cipher wouldn't kill Nova.He wouldn't even try.
Why?
Because Cipher was already afraid.
Not of Nova.Of a name he didn't believe was real.Of Ash.
Nova ducked behind a freight pod as two armed guards passed. Cipher had eyes everywhere. Biometric scanners. Drones. Surveillance lines that would shame corporate black-ops. But Ash had taught her how to move unseen. Where blind spots overlapped. Where automated routines reset at precisely 11:42 p.m.
She didn't ask how Ash knew that.She didn't want to know.
She crept forward, disabling a lock with a shockpad. Inside: darkness. Consoles. LED boards lining the walls, flickering with code and whispers from the net. This was it. Cipher's nest.
He was already watching her.
"I don't like people walking into my space," a voice crackled from above. Tinny. Artificial. "Especially ones sent by dead men."
"I'm not sent," Nova replied. "I'm offering."
A low chuckle. "Everyone offers. Everyone lies."
"I know your system," she said coolly. "Your blind zones. Your drone rotations. I got in here because someone knows more about you than you do."
Silence.
"You're bluffing."
"No," she said. "Ash is real. He wants you."
Click. The lights shut off.
When they came back on, Cipher was standing six feet in front of her. Gaunt. Greasy hair. Glasses that reflected a dozen data feeds. His left hand was cybernetic—fingers twitching, calculating.
"If he's real, then why didn't he come himself?"
Nova held his gaze. "Because this was part of the test."
Cipher frowned.
"Your security protocols," she said. "He exploited them before I even stepped inside. You didn't notice the loop in your camera feed at 22:01. The drone above gate 4 is transmitting a dead signal. And your kill switch? Already disabled."
He blinked.
She tossed him a data stick. He plugged it into the console.
On screen: a live feed. Himself—looped ten minutes ago. Unaware. Moving in a loop Ash had programmed days earlier.
Cipher froze.
"I didn't do that," Nova whispered. "He did."
Now he understood. The test wasn't hers. It was his.
"I didn't even know who you were," Cipher said, voice low, "but he—he's been in my system this whole time?"
Nova nodded. "He knew you'd ask that question. He told me to give you this exact answer."
Cipher looked pale. His hand stopped twitching.
"And what does he want from me?"
She stepped closer. "To stop running. To start building."
Cipher swallowed hard. "And if I refuse?"
"Then he already has your replacement," she said. "And your failsafes won't work."
Cipher stared at the screens. Every one had his own face, repeating meaningless movements.A god had walked into his kingdom and rearranged it without leaving a single footprint.
Ash hadn't just won.
He'd never even played.
Far above, Ash stood at the top of a skyscraper under a cloudy sky. His coat fluttered in the wind. He didn't smile. There was no need.
Cipher was already his.He had been from the beginning.
The empire had claimed its second piece.
And not a single drop of blood had been spilled.