The rooftop garden looked different in the daytime.
The flowers were fake. The pond was just a mirror. What looked like magic at night was just a trick. A beautiful lie.
Vivienne was already there. She wore a gray suit and looked like she was going to a funeral.
"You're late," she said.
"I stopped at a store." Aria put down a heavy bag. "Lucas had video of our meeting. This place is not safe."
"Victor has the video because I let him see it."
Aria's hand moved toward the bag. Inside was a small weapon she had bought to protect herself.
"Please sit," Vivienne said. Her voice was tired. "Let me explain."
Victor Has Been Watching
"Victor has been watching me since I woke up," Vivienne said. "Not for three months. From the very first day. He has cameras everywhere. The only way to talk freely was to talk where he was already listening."
Aria sat down. "You used his own cameras against him."
"Yes. Victor thinks he is the smartest man alive. He thinks if he can see something, he controls it. So I let him see me meeting a stranger. A woman who might be dangerous." Vivienne looked up. "But he did not hear what we said. The cameras here have no sound."
Aria let out a breath. "You could have warned me."
"I could not risk Victor catching the message." Vivienne pulled out a tablet. Her hands were shaking. "He killed Marcus Webb. He wanted you to look guilty. He wanted Lucas to see you as a threat."
She handed Aria the tablet.
The Photograph
The screen showed a picture. Black and white. Grainy. The date was two years in the future.
A woman lay dead on a glass table. Blood was everywhere. Orchids were dying in the background.
Aria stared at the picture of her own death.
"I found this on Victor's computer," Vivienne said. "He has files on everyone. Everyone who will matter in the next five years. Everyone who might come back from death."
She swiped to another photo. A car crashed against a wall. A body on a stretcher. A man in a dark suit watching from the shadows.
Victor.
"He watched me die," Vivienne said. "He was there."
The List
The next image was a document. A list of names.
Subject 001: Kane, Vivienne — Status: Watched
Subject 002: Chen, Aria — Status: Active — Order: Kill if not useful
Subject 003: Greyson, Lucas — Status: Asset
Subject 004: Zhao, Claire — Status: Asset
Subject 005: Webb, Marcus — Status: Dead
Fifteen names in total. Fifteen people who had died and come back. Or who might come back. Or who were being used as bait.
"There are more," Vivienne said. "Victor has been collecting us. Or killing us. Or using us. I do not know which."
She swiped one more time.
A photograph of Lucas and Victor shaking hands. The date was today.
After Aria had left the penthouse.
"Lucas is working with him," Aria whispered.
"Lucas has always worked with him." Vivienne's voice was hollow. "Victor sent Claire to Lucas. Victor told Lucas to find you at the coffee shop. Victor planned your death five years before it happened."
Aria felt cold spread through her body.
The text message she had received as she died. "Sorry it had to end this way."
She had thought Lucas sent it. But Lucas said no this morning. Now she believed him.
The text was Victor's work. He wanted her to know, in her final moments, that she had been played.
What Do We Do?
"What now?" Aria asked.
"We find the others. The thirteen names. We find them before Victor does. We build an army."
"And Lucas?"
"He is a weapon. Victor is aiming him at us. But weapons can be turned." Vivienne's eyes hardened. "You already made him doubt. That doubt is a crack. We pour poison into it. The weapon will break."
Aria looked at the list again. She stopped at number twelve.
Subject 012: Nakamura, Kai Status: Not found
The name was new to her. But the date January 7th, 2023 was four months ago. Kai had been back longer than anyone except Vivienne.
And Victor had not found him yet.
"I know where to start," Aria said.
Kai Nakamura
The building was at 47 Water Street. No sign. No lobby. Just a black door with a keypad.
Aria typed the code Vivienne gave her. The door opened.
Inside, the elevator took her up. Twenty-two floors.
The doors opened to a room full of strange things. Bookshelves lined the walls. But instead of books, there were objects. A watch that glowed. A map of stars Aria did not know. A mirror that showed a garden she had never seen.
In the center sat a young man. Twenty-five years old. Dark hair. Eyes like storm clouds. He wore a t-shirt that said: "I survived 2023 and all I got was this second chance."
"You're early," he said. "Vivienne said tomorrow."
"Kai Nakamura?"
He smiled. It was a tired smile. "Are you here to recruit me or kill me? I have had both this week."
Aria stepped inside. "Victor Kane is hunting people like us. People who came back. I am building something he cannot control. An army of people with nothing to lose."
Kai stood up. He picked up the glowing watch and held it out.
"Look," he said.
The Vision
Aria took the watch.
The world disappeared.
She saw a city on fire. A woman running with a child in her arms. The woman fell. The child rose. The child grew into someone who walked through fire and did not burn.
She saw Kai, younger, standing in a room of screens. Watching the same files Vivienne had shown her.
She saw him find her name. Subject 002. Aria Chen. Order: Kill if not useful.
She saw him make a choice.
The vision ended.
Aria grabbed the table to steady herself. "What was that?"
Kai took the watch back. "1906. San Francisco earthquake. My great-grandmother died there. But her daughter survived. The women in my family have always carried something. A way to see what was and what could be."
He looked at her. "I saw you die, Aria. On a glass table. A man you loved walked away. And I saw you wake up three days later in a dorm room with a dead woman's rage."
He sat down. "I have been waiting for you for four months. Waiting to see if you would be the one. The one who can do what I cannot."
He offered his hand. "I am not a soldier. I am a map. Use me. Burn down everything Victor built. And build something new."
Aria took his hand.
"Show me everything," she said.
What Is in the Basement?
Kai showed her Victor's private files. Words that made Aria's skin crawl.
"The returned cannot be allowed to exist. Unless I can control them. Unless I can become what they are. Immortal. Beyond death."
"He wants to come back," Aria said. "But on his terms. With his power."
"He wants to be a god," Kai said. "He has been doing this for twenty-three years. Since his mother died and never came back."
Kai pulled up a map of Victor's building. "There is a room in the sub-basement. Sealed. Hidden. People go in. They do not come out."
"How many?"
"I have counted nine. Nine of the fifteen names on the list. They are in that room right now."
Aria stared at the map. Nine people. Nine returned souls. Victor was keeping them like prisoners.
"Get me in," she said.
The Escape
At 11:30 PM, the lights in Victor's building went out.
Vivienne had made a distraction. A small bomb that killed the security system but nothing else.
Aria moved fast. Through a service door. Down stairs. Past corridors that smelled of fear.
The service elevator took her to B3.
The compass Kai gave her pulsed with warmth. It pulled her left, then right. To a heavy door with many locks.
She used the EMP. The locks clicked open.
The room was small and white. Nine beds. Nine people in hospital gowns. Machines beeped and whirred.
In the center was a table. On it sat a photograph.
Aria picked it up.
It was her. Subject 002. With a date written in red.
KILL DATE: 05/21/2023
Six days from now.
She looked at the nine faces watching her.
"You are not experiments," she said. "You are soldiers. We have a war to win."
She walked to the first bed. A woman with fierce eyes.
"What is your name?"
"Elena. He kept me here for two years."
Aria unhooked the IV. "Not anymore."
She freed them all. One by one.
Nine people. Nine returned souls. Nine weapons Victor thought he had locked away.
Tonight, they became an army.
At midnight, Victor Kane stepped into the service elevator.
It did not move.
He pressed the button again. Nothing.
His phone was dead.
For the first time in twenty-three years, Victor Kane felt fear.
NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW:
Aria leads nine people out of Victor's prison. But the city is hunting them now. Lucas learns who really killed Marcus Webb. He wants to help but trust comes with a price. And when Victor catches up, he does not bring an army. He brings a deal. One that could end everything.