Breaking point

Chapter 17 – The Breaking Point

The Zurich facility erupted into chaos.

Amara Cole grabbed Elias Grant's arm and pulled him out of the memory chamber just as sparks burst from the terminal. A series of rapid beeps signaled system failure—whatever was buried in Elias's past had pushed the interface too far. And now it was shutting down.

Behind them, Michael and Mason laid down suppressing fire in the upper hall, pinning Evelyn's black-suited operatives behind walls of shattered glass and fallen debris.

"We're not gonna hold them off for long!" Mason shouted. "You two need to move!"

Amara ducked as bullets sprayed the metal walls. She and Elias sprinted through a narrow passage Nyra had marked on their way in—one that led toward an old cargo elevator.

Elias stumbled briefly, still dizzy from the last memory flash. "There was more," he muttered, "I saw my father… but then it changed. I think West tried to remove part of the programming."

Amara steadied him. "You can remember it later. Right now, we have to get out."

The elevator creaked down just in time. Nyra appeared beside them, hands flying over her wrist console to override the next series of locks. Her breaths were fast, but her face stayed unreadable.

Amara noticed how her hand lingered on Elias's shoulder just a moment too long.

He didn't flinch.

But he didn't return it either.

---

Down in the tunnels

The elevator shuddered to a halt in an underground tunnel, flooded ankle-deep with icy runoff. Lights flickered as the group moved quietly, weapons raised.

Nyra led the way.

Elias and Amara followed, side by side.

Mason and Michael watched their six.

"Where does this lead?" Amara whispered.

"To a decommissioned tram station," Nyra replied. "If we catch it before they intercept the lines, we're ghosts."

Michael nodded. "And if not?"

Mason gave a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "We improvise."

---

But something felt wrong.

As they reached the tram station, an eerie silence settled. No enemy fire. No footsteps. Just the hum of dormant power beneath their feet.

Then the lights clicked on—one by one, in a perfect circle.

"Trap," Elias said instantly.

Too late.

Metal doors slammed shut at both ends of the tunnel.

From the far side, a familiar figure stepped out.

Evelyn Bell.

Flanked by three heavily armed guards and a drone camera hovering at her shoulder, she looked every bit the orchestrator of their misery—calm, elegant, cruel.

"Well done," she said. "Truly. You were never supposed to get this far."

Her gaze landed on Elias. "Especially you."

Elias stepped forward, Amara instinctively at his side. "You erased me," he said. "But I'm starting to remember."

Evelyn's lips twitched. "You were always going to. That was the point. We didn't just create weapons, Elias. We created fuses. And now… you're lit."

Nyra moved subtly to the side, angling toward a power box.

Evelyn noticed. "Don't bother. I own the grid."

"Why are you doing this?" Amara asked. "Why go through all this pain?"

Evelyn finally looked at her.

"You remind me of her."

Amara froze. "Of who?"

Evelyn tilted her head. "West Solarin. She was always the idealist. She thought love could undo programming. That telling you to 'trust no one' would save you. But love makes you predictable."

She raised a small remote.

"I'd like to see just how predictable."

---

The standoff

Before she could press the trigger, Michael fired. The remote flew from Evelyn's hand. Chaos broke out.

Gunfire.

Screams.

Nyra tackled the nearest guard and jammed a shock rod into his ribs.

Mason took down another and shoved Amara behind the tram pillar.

"Protect her," he barked.

But Elias was already moving.

He collided with Evelyn, slamming her into the wall. The drone crackled and dropped. For a moment, it was just them.

"You used me," he growled.

"You let yourself be used," she hissed. "Because deep down, you wanted to matter."

Amara heard those words—like a nail in the wound Elias had carried for years.

Before he could speak, Evelyn lunged with a blade.

Amara reached them first, slamming her shoulder into Evelyn. The knife clattered.

But Evelyn twisted, grabbing Amara by the throat.

"You're the weakness," she spat.

Elias froze.

Something in him snapped.

In one smooth motion, he grabbed Evelyn's arm, twisted her off Amara, and slammed her to the ground. Hard. She didn't move again.

The silence returned, heavy and strange.

---

Later, on the tram

The team rode the rails into an abandoned depot two cities away. Mason patched up Michael's arm, and Nyra sat alone, cleaning her blade.

Amara and Elias sat together—no words yet.

Eventually, she spoke.

"You didn't kill her."

"I wanted to," he replied.

Amara nodded. "But you didn't."

He turned his face toward the window. "Because of you."

She looked at him, eyes soft. "You found a way out."

He faced her again.

"You were always the way out."

---

Back at the facility

Evelyn stirred.

Her mouth bled.

Her arm was broken.

But as she crawled toward her fallen remote, a hidden camera behind her blinked red.

Recording.

Streaming.

To someone else.

Far away.

Watching.

Waiting.

Smiling.

The abandoned depot was quiet, too quiet for Amara Cole's liking.

After the chaos at the tram station, their escape had felt almost too clean. No drones, no pursuit, no trackers activated. As they set up a makeshift camp in the warehouse loft, Amara couldn't help but glance over her shoulder every few minutes.

She wasn't the only one.

Elias Grant stood by the cracked windows, arms crossed, eyes scanning the dark horizon like a soldier waiting for the next war. Something inside him had shifted since Zurich—since Evelyn's words.

That she reminded her of West.

That love made them predictable.

That West's warning had been intentional.

"Tell him. Don't trust anyone."

Those words came back with a weight Amara hadn't felt before. She replayed them in her mind again and again. Who was him?

Was it Elias?

Was it someone else?

West had known something they hadn't. She had seen the betrayal coming.

But from where?

---

Downstairs, Mason and Michael argued in hushed tones.

"She had a backup feed. I saw the camera blinking before we left," Mason said. "Someone else saw what happened."

Michael frowned. "Evelyn worked for Daedalus, yeah? But she kept referencing a 'superior.' You think it's internal?"

"No," Mason replied. "I think it's worse."

---

Upstairs

Amara approached Elias slowly. He looked like he hadn't blinked in a while.

"You're too quiet," she said.

"I'm thinking."

"About Evelyn?"

"About what she said. About being used. And… about West."

Amara stepped closer. "Elias. You weren't used. Not by me. Not by her. She left that message because she knew they'd come after you."

Elias's jaw flexed. "But who is 'him'? Who was she warning you about?"

"I don't know. But we'll find out. Together."

He finally looked at her. Not just glanced—looked. As if she was the only thing grounding him to this world.

"I trust you," he said.

Those three words shouldn't have felt as dangerous as they did.

Amara's heartbeat thudded in her chest. "And I trust you."

A silence passed between them, thick but safe. She reached for his hand. He didn't pull away.

---

But below, in the server bag they'd carried from Zurich… something blinked.

A soft ping. Barely noticeable.

The data drive West had embedded into the encrypted core of Elias's mind had triggered an auto-decrypt protocol.

The code began to unravel itself.

One by one, files surfaced. Audio clips. A partial message from West herself.

Mason caught it first.

"Uh… Elias?"

Everyone gathered around the drive as the static cleared and West Solarin's voice echoed from the dusty speaker.

"If you're hearing this, it means you've survived Zurich."

Amara's breath caught.

West's voice was slow, steady, deliberate.

"They'll try to divide you. They'll use what he was—what they made him into—to make you run. But don't. Stay with him."

Elias looked at the floor. Mason quietly turned up the volume.

"Elias was the only one who knew what the Phoenix Protocol was capable of… because he was the final phase."

Everyone froze.

"He wasn't just a tool. He was the blueprint."

The message cut off. Corrupted.

Silence.

Elias sank onto the floor like the words had physically struck him.

Amara dropped beside him. "You didn't ask for this."

"No," he whispered. "But I am it."

Nyra appeared behind them, quiet until now. "It means the one they're hunting… the one they need to restart the Phoenix Program… is you."

Mason added, "And West died trying to bury that truth."

Nyra's eyes didn't leave Elias. "Then they won't stop. Ever."

---

Hours later

The group slept in turns. Nyra stayed up the longest, pacing by the windows. At some point, she stared down at Elias as he slept—Amara curled beside him.

There was a storm behind her eyes.

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small chip. Daedalus marked. Not yet activated.

She closed her hand around it.

But didn't let go.

Not yet.

---

Far away, in a cold underground chamber

Evelyn knelt before a shadowed figure watching her through a screen.

"She's with him," Evelyn rasped. "They trust each other now."

The voice that responded was calm, clinical.

"Then it's time to break them."

The screen blinked to black.

---