Chapter 17: Shadows in Seoul

The night sky above Seoul pulsed with cold neon and veiled tension. Rain slicked the streets like glass, turning headlights into streaks of fire. From the rooftop of a dormant construction tower, Lucien Ricci watched the city below like a predator with infinite patience.

"Target's inside," Min-Jae murmured through the comms. "Argent Circle operatives confirmed. Drevin's not here, but his proxy Kazuo is. He's coordinating something underground."

Lucien's jaw tightened. He didn't need Drevin to draw blood.

"Orders?" Min-Jae asked.

Lucien slid the bolt on his silencer, voice low and absolute. "We move in ten. No witnesses. I want Kazuo breathing barely."

Below them, in an abandoned research complex once disguised as a biotech lab, the floor buzzed with quiet activity. Men in suits and tactical gear unloaded crates marked with the Phoenix insignia crimson wings curled around a double helix. They were testing again. Preparing another wave.

And they were doing it on Korean soil, under his watch.

Lucien's gloved fingers tapped a rhythm into his wrist communicator, triggering encrypted footage from the Ricci satellites. A live feed flickered to life, revealing a steel chamber underground one Lucien hadn't seen before.

Inside: women. Girls. Sedated. Monitored.

Project Phoenix wasn't just data anymore.

It was living.

It was evolving.

"They're building soldiers," Lucien whispered. "Using her bloodline."

Elsewhere: Yuna's Apartment

Yuna sat in silence, the only light in the room cast from her laptop screen. The encrypted file Gabriel's contact had sent her was still decrypting, line by line. Her heart beat faster with every keystroke, every flicker of truth unmasked.

Another photograph appeared.

Her mother. Again. But not alone.

Standing beside her: a man with Ricci features and a surgical scar just beneath his left ear.

"Operative File: Dr. Salvatore Gianni Project Phoenix Co Architect. Status: Terminated."

Yuna leaned in. She remembered that scar.

The man had visited their home once when she was a child. She had called him *Uncle Sal.

A fragment of memory returned like a ghost.

Her mother arguing in hushed tones.

"You said she was dormant just a carrier!"

"She's more than that, Hana. She's the seed."

Seed. Yuna inhaled sharply.

Her blood wasn't just special.

It was the foundation of the project.

Beneath the file, a second document auto-loaded. A medical log dated twenty-four years ago days after Yuna's birth. Her name at the top.

But the signatory was what stopped her breath.

"Approved by: L. Ricci."

Lucien?

No. The timestamp didn't align.

She checked again. L… Leonardo Ricci.

Lucien's father.

Yuna stood up too fast, the chair tipping behind her.

"He knew."

Lucien had known something.

Maybe not everything.

But enough.

And still… he hadn't run. He hadn't used her. He'd protected her. Fought for her. Lied to his family for her.

The lines between betrayal and salvation blurred.

(Ricci Operation Seoul Underground Lab)

The breach was surgical. Silent. Six elite Ricci agents slipped into the compound like phantoms, disabling guards with precision.

Lucien led the advance. He didn't speak, didn't hesitate. Every corridor they passed reeked of antiseptic and quiet horror.

"Main chamber," Min-Jae said, hacking the reinforced door.

Lucien raised his hand.

Wait.

Inside, Kazuo Shin paced in front of the containment pods, flanked by two armed guards.

"Blood samples from the last sequence are unstable," Kazuo snapped. "We need her here."

Aleksei's voice echoed from a speaker above. "She'll come. She always does. Ricci's pride will bring her to us. All we have to do… is light the right fire."

Lucien stepped into view.

"Start with this one."

The fight erupted in seconds.

Lucien took out both guards before Kazuo even turned. The Japanese assassin dodged Lucien's strike by an inch, landing a counter-blow to his ribs—but it was like punching stone. Lucien caught Kazuo's arm mid-motion and twisted, slamming him against a reinforced glass tank.

"You think you're still in control?" Lucien growled. "You're nothing but a shadow under someone else's boot."

Kazuo laughed, blood in his teeth. "And you think she'll forgive you? When she learns what your family did?"

Lucien didn't answer.

Because Kazuo was right.

She would learn.

And she might not forgive him.

But he would burn the world before letting them use her again.

Min-Jae secured the lab. The girls would be extracted. The samples destroyed. But not before Lucien downloaded everything into a protected drive.

A backup. Evidence.

Truth.

-Back at Yuna's Apartment-

The door buzzed.

Yuna reached for the Glock Lucien had insisted she keep. One look through the peephole and she froze.

Lucien stood there. Blood on his sleeve. Rain in his eyes.

She opened the door slowly.

"I found them," he said, voice tired. "They were using a facility outside Yongsan. Your DNA was everywhere. It's worse than I thought."

Her voice didn't tremble. "So you knew."

His jaw set. "I suspected. Until tonight."

Yuna stepped aside. "Then tell me everything."

Lucien entered, leaving the storm outside. For the first time in weeks, he removed his jacket not to relax, but to reveal the bruises and truth underneath.

She stared at him.

"You could have killed Kazuo. Why didn't you?"

"Because Drevin's not finished. And Kazuo's a thread I can follow. One we can pull together."

Yuna took a breath. The file still glowed on her laptop screen.

"My mother… she tried to stop it, didn't she?"

Lucien nodded once. "She was a whistleblower. Leonardo silenced her. But not before she scattered pieces of the truth."

Yuna lowered her head.

"Why me, Lucien? Why not someone else?"

He moved toward her, slowly.

"Because they underestimated you. And because I overestimated myself. I thought I could keep you out of this."

She looked up.

"And now?"

He reached out, brushing a lock of hair from her face.

"Now, I know I can't stop what's coming without you."

Geneva (Sable Safehouse)

Drevin watched the feed from Seoul in silence. The lab was gone. Kazuo was captured. But he wasn't worried.

He tapped a screen.

On it: a biometric scan.

Asset K-001.

Status: Activated.

Underneath it: a new protocol loaded.

"Omega Sequence: If Ricci falls, Phoenix rises."