Chapter 13: The King's Gambit
The sterile white of the medical hallway was a blinding, brutal contrast to the grimy server room. The nameplate—*AVA CORVIN*—was a bullseye painted on his sister's forehead. The Dreadnought's silent, looming presence was the gun barrel pressed against it.
*Checkmate.*
The word echoed in the cold, metallic hollow of his mind. Omni-Stream had found her. Nyx's "secure" location was compromised, or perhaps she had sold him out the moment he became more liability than asset. The controlled anarchy he had unleashed upon the arcology was meaningless. He had won the battle of the city and lost the war for his soul in a single, devastating move.
Valerius saw the change in him. The feral light in Will's eyes guttered and died, replaced by a void of absolute defeat. "Will? What is it?"
Will didn't answer. His connection to the data-stream showed the security teams halting their advance. They didn't need to storm his position anymore. They had him. The Dreadnought's feed was now the primary broadcast, overwriting his own stream. The millions of viewers were now watching his execution, not his revolution.
A new, formal communication replaced the Stream Goal, emblazoned with the official Omni-Stream seal.
**CEASE ALL HOSTILE ACTIONS. SURRENDER YOURSELF AND THE TRAITOR VALERIUS AT THE PAPPOS PLAZA IN THIRTY MINUTES. NON-COMPLIANCE WILL RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF SUBJECT: AVA CORVIN.**
The message was public. A spectacle of submission was demanded.
Valerius's face hardened as he read the ultimatum over Will's shoulder. "It's a trap. They'll kill us the moment we step into that plaza. And her anyway."
"I know," Will whispered, the words ash.
"Then we don't go. We fight. We find another way."
"There is no other way!" The shout tore from Will's throat, raw and human, startling in the cold, logical space. "Don't you see? This was always the endgame. They let me run. They let me think I was winning. They needed a public enemy to make a public example of." He looked at Valerius, his eyes haunted. "I can't let her die for my pride."
He was breaking. The cybernetic fortress around his mind cracked, and the terrified janitor came flooding back. He was going to surrender. He was going to walk to his death and hand over the only ally he had, all for the slim, pathetic hope that they might let Ava live.
Valerius saw the surrender in his eyes. The ex-enforcer's own gaze, however, did not waver. He had been where Will was now. He had faced the machine's absolute power and been broken by it. But in that breaking, he had found a different kind of strength.
"No," Valerius said, his voice low and iron-steady.
Will stared at him. "What?"
"I said no." Valerius took a step forward, his large frame blocking Will's view of the terminal. "They took everything from me. My career. My dignity. They tried to take my life. You gave me a chance to get it back. You showed me the enemy isn't just a company; it's the fear they use to control us. You're not surrendering. Not to them. Not while I'm breathing."
"They'll kill her!"
"They'll kill her anyway!" Valerius roared, the sound echoing in the cavernous room. "The moment you're disintegrated in that plaza, she becomes a loose end. They will erase her. The only chance she has—the only chance *my daughter* has—is if we break their goddamn system!"
The truth of it hit Will like a physical blow. Surrender wasn't a choice. It was an illusion. The only path, however suicidal, was forward.
The void of defeat in his eyes filled with a new, terrifying resolve. The cold cybernetics and the hot human fury fused into a single, unstoppable purpose.
He turned back to the terminal, his fingers moving again, faster than ever. "Then we don't play their game. We change the rules."
He still had one Chaos Crown. One last card to play.
He wasn't going to Pappos Plaza.
He pulled up the schematics for the medical facility. It was a fortress, but every fortress had a weakness. Its life support was independent, but its emergency power relayed through a public grid substation. The same grid his virus was currently destabilizing.
"What are you doing?" Valerius asked, watching lines of code fly across the screen.
"Creating a diversion," Will said, a plan crystallizing with impossible speed. "The Dreadnought is their fist. It's focused on me, on the threat in front of it. It won't be expecting an attack from within."
He input a final command.
Across the city, in the substation powering the medical facility's emergency systems, a capacitor overloaded. The resulting surge was contained, but it triggered a mandatory, facility-wide safety protocol: a five-second, full-system reboot.
Five seconds of darkness. Five seconds of silenced alarms. Five seconds where every sealed door in the facility, including the one to Isolation Ward 7, would automatically unlock.
On the live feed from the Dreadnought's camera, the sterile white hallway plunged into absolute blackness.
The checkmate had just been declined.
Will rose to his feet, his body thrumming with lethal energy. He looked at Valerius, a silent question in his eyes.
The ex-enforcer hefted his stolen weapon, a grim, determined smile finally touching his lips. "Just point me at the enemy."
Will's reply was simple, final, and sent a shockwave through the millions still watching.
"We're not going to the plaza," he said, his voice cutting through the static of the renewed feed. "We're going to get my sister."