Chapter 3

A figure emerged slowly from the far end of the corridor.

The emergency lights behind him turned his silhouette into something ghostlike—half shadow, half smoke.

The wounded security officer stared at him, one hand clamped over his bleeding shoulder.

His voice dropped instantly.

"You're supposed to be dead."

Lena didn't move.

Her eyes never left the newcomer.

More precisely—

She recognized the way he attacked.

And the codename attached to it.

Raven.

Lena spoke first.

"You're late."

Raven glanced at her briefly.

His voice was rough, almost tired.

"Still earlier than your funeral."

The injured man suddenly laughed.

Blood covered half his face, twisting the smile into something ugly.

"Looks like all of you forgot," he said quietly, "who actually controls this place."

Then he raised his wrist and pressed something hidden beneath the side of his watch.

Instantly—

ALARMS SCREAMED THROUGH THE ENTIRE FACILITY.

The underground corridor flooded red.

Emergency lights flashed violently overhead while the deeper sections of the server level echoed with a massive metallic boom.

Somewhere below—

A blast door had sealed shut.

Lena's expression changed immediately.

This wasn't a standard lockdown.

Someone was sealing the entire level from the inside.

Then the central monitor flashed.

IGNITION POINT THREE

COUNTDOWN: 09:59

Lena felt her stomach tighten.

"He already activated it?"

Raven moved instantly.

He crossed to the control station and began typing rapidly.

A structural map of the harbor exploded across the screen.

Three red markers appeared.

Warehouse district.

Cargo yard.

Main support bridge.

The center marker pulsed continuously.

Raven zoomed in.

"The third ignition point isn't inside the warehouse."

His voice lowered.

"It's under Shadows Bridge."

Lena stared at the map.

"If that bridge collapses," Raven continued, "the storage sector and outer transport grid both go down. Minimum port shutdown—twelve hours."

Then he enlarged another section.

A blue route line appeared.

Moving directly toward the bridge.

Ethan.

Lena grabbed the edge of the desk.

"He's guiding Ethan straight into it."

Raven didn't answer.

He only magnified the route again.

The blue line was getting closer to the red marker every second.

Too close.

"I'm calling him."

Lena reached for the earpiece.

"Won't help," Raven said without looking up. "The command layer already jammed standard frequencies. Anything you send becomes noise."

"Then what do we do?"

Raven finally stopped typing.

"There are two options."

He pointed at the flashing bridge marker.

"Option one—I disable the ignition system."

Then he pointed toward a lower access route hidden beneath the bridge structure.

"Option two—you unlock Black Gate's lower seal and reroute Ethan through the maintenance tunnels."

"And you?"

"I find Kane."

"No."

Lena rejected it immediately.

"That's exactly what he wants. Separate you. Isolate you."

A faint smile touched Raven's mouth.

"You think I'm scared of him?"

"That's not what I said."

Lena stared directly at him.

"I'm saying all of you are the same."

The room fell silent.

"You," she continued, "Ethan... all of you think being faster and more ruthless fixes everything."

Her voice hardened.

"But Kane doesn't need to beat you."

"He just needs you to choose wrong."

For the first time, something shifted behind Raven's eyes.

Not anger.

Recognition.

Then—

The wounded man on the floor laughed again.

"Beautiful speech."

Blood dripped between his fingers.

"Too bad you're already late."

BANG.

The pistol lying beside him fired suddenly.

The bullet screamed past Lena's head and shattered one of the monitors behind her.

Glass exploded across the room.

Electrical sparks burst from the broken screen.

The terrified technician dropped to the floor covering his head.

Raven reacted instantly.

A black steel spike flashed through the air.

THUNK.

It punched through the man's wrist.

The gun spun away across the floor.

But in that same second—

A tiny red light blinked beneath the man's chest badge.

Raven's expression changed instantly.

"MOVE!"

He slammed Lena behind the control station—

And the man exploded.

Not metaphorically.

Not dramatically.

Actually exploded.

Blood.

Bone.

Metal fragments.

Burning fabric.

The blast wave tore through the server room like a mine detonating at point-blank range.

Half the surveillance wall died instantly.

The ceiling lights swung wildly overhead.

The alarms became unbearable.

Lena heard nothing except violent ringing.

White light swallowed her vision.

All she could feel was Raven shielding her with his body, one arm braced against the floor against the force of the blast.

Several seconds later—

Her sight slowly returned.

Raven was already standing.

A jagged metal shard had ripped open the outside of his right arm.

Blood ran steadily down his glove.

He ignored it completely.

Instead, he tore damaged wiring from the console and manually rerouted backup power.

Part of the system flickered back online.

Thirty-two percent operational.

The countdown continued.

08:21

The technician's face had gone white.

"They implanted bombs inside them..."

"Not them," Raven said coldly.

"Kane did."

He wiped blood from his hand.

"He never cared whether his people survived."

Lena forced herself upright beside the damaged desk.

"You already knew?"

"I knew he liked giving everyone a final purpose."

Raven looked back toward the timer.

"Now listen carefully."

He pointed toward the lower-level access corridor.

"You go downstairs and open the maintenance route."

"And you?"

"I'm heading to Shadows Bridge."

"I thought you said you were hunting Kane."

Raven went silent briefly.

Calculating.

Then:

"If he personally triggered ignition point three, he won't stay far from the command layer."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"He'll want to watch Ethan walk into the trap himself."

Lena understood immediately.

This wasn't bomb disposal.

Raven was bait.

Using himself to draw Kane out.

"You're not planning to survive this."

Raven didn't answer.

He simply placed a black access chip onto the desk.

"Take it."

"First gate uses your old clearance card. Second gate uses this."

His voice hardened.

"Once the tunnel opens, don't stop for anything. Ignore every alarm."

Then he turned toward the flashing red corridor.

"Raven."

He stopped walking.

But never turned around.

"If you see Ethan..."

Lena hesitated.

Too many things trapped in her throat.

But only one sentence escaped.

"Tell him to stop trying to carry everything alone."

For the first time—

Raven smiled.

Barely visible.

"You should stay alive long enough to tell him yourself."

Then he disappeared into the crimson-lit corridor.

Lena immediately grabbed the shaking technician by the arm.

"Where's the lower-level entrance?"

The technician pointed deeper into the ruined facility.

Together, they ran past burning equipment and collapsed ceiling panels toward the lower stairwell.

Meanwhile—

Outer Harbor Ring Road.

The rain had become violent.

Ethan sat behind the wheel while the wipers moved at full speed, barely keeping the windshield visible beneath the endless flood of water.

Somewhere ahead—

The trap was waiting.