Selene
The corridor didn't feel like part of a building.
It felt like something carved out of restraint.
The lights overhead were bright—They glowed in a muted, almost sickly gold, like they had been brightened on purpose, like the city itself didn't trust clarity. Shadows stretched longer than they should, clinging to corners, pooling near the edges of the walls.
The marble beneath my feet was cold.
Not naturally cold.
Engineered cold.
The walls dark green. My dad's color.
Marco had said, someone broke into the Headquarters, nobody breaks into the headquarters of Marcellus with hundreds of security guards, unless the guards let them in. But Marco explained how the security guards didn't see anyone, not even a shadow, not even a silhouette of one. Impressive. Only two people in the syndicate can fool the most secured security vault, 100s of trained wrestlers who work as security guards in the night shifts. So it can be either Lily Bennet, my best friend since I was 17, the most cunning thief, who plans heists and did world renowned heists like nothing was as easier for her as gliding through the electric vaults. She has a team for it as well, one of the top three banks in the Entire country was the captive of her heist, she's a mastermind to plan those heists, she isn't your local decoy, she's not a woman to snatch, she would ask,with keeping hostage more than 50 customers of any bank and threaten politely until the crime branch stop the investigation against her and let her go free. All with exchanging alive bodies with sacks of gold bars. She's the most wanted thief in the subcontinent right now. She's on everyday headlines, she was laying low for a year after breaking through the most prestigious museum storing platinum sculptures and stole 5 of them. She does it so expertly, like an eel, slipping through human bodies like slime, and even if people see it with their own eyes, her manipulation forces them to believe they were born blind. She was once the woman, I trusted the most. But she won't hit Lucien, she loved Lucien enough to get hit herself but she won't bruise the man who stole her heart maybe at the very same age as me and I, being the obvious oblivious didn't even doubt it.
There was a hum.
Low.
Constant.
Easy to ignore if you weren't listening for it.
The building breathing through its vents, the distant churn of generators, the quiet circulation of power that kept everything running—locks, cameras, secrets.
Victor was waiting.
Leaning against the wall like he belonged to it, arms crossed, eyes sharper than usual. Marco stood a little further away, restless, like he wanted to speak but didn't know if he'd survive it.
"Seal the floor," I said.
Victor didn't ask why.
He just nodded and spoke into his airdrop.
" lockdown my bedroom door. No one in, no one out."
I stepped forward, slow.
Measured.
Every step felt like I was walking into something already decided.
"Seven minutes," I murmured.
"Someone wanted him alive," I continued.
"Barely."
Victor's gaze flickered.
He understood.
Of course he did.
Dead would've been cleaner.
Easier.
This—
this was a message.
"To me."
Silence.
I turned my head slightly, just enough to look at Marco.
"Say it."
His throat bobbed.
"There's… one more thing."
"spill"
Marco inhaled.
"The biometric log—" he said, voice lower now, "it wasn't just accessed."
"It was overridden."I knew it
My fingers twitched.
"Who?" I asked.
"No external breach," Victor answered this time.
I breathed through my nose,
"List," I said.
Victor didn't hesitate.
"You. Me. Marco." I paused
"And Lucien."
My jaw tightened.
"Lucien was bleeding out on my bathroom floor," I said flatly.
"He wasn't overriding anything."
Which left—
Silence stretched again.
But this time—
it had teeth.
I tilted my head slightly.
Thinking.
Override.
Lucien unconscious.
Someone who knew the system.
Someone who knew him.
Someone who knew me.
A name flickered—
not fully formed.
Not yet.
But close.
Too close.
I turned away from them.
"Check the underground routes," I said.
"Old ones. The ones we don't use anymore."
Marco frowned.
"Those were sealed years ago—"
"Check them."
My voice didn't rise.
Didn't need to.
Victor was already moving.
At least one of them still understood how this worked.
I started walking.
Because whoever did this—
wasn't just inside my system.
They were inside my history.
And history—
has a way of bleeding back.
I stopped midway down the corridor.
Lily. I knew it, I knew it goddamn it. It wouldn't have been anyone but Lily. And this was her introduction back into my life.
The name didn't feel like a shock.
It felt like something inevitable.
Cold.
"Find her," I said quietly.
Behind me, Marco froze.
Victor didn't.
"She's been off-grid for months," Marco said.
"After—"
"I didn't ask for context." my stomach clenched. Enough emotions for today.
"I asked you to find her."
Because if this was her—
if she had the audacity—
Then this wasn't just betrayal anymore.
This was war.