Adrian's POV
The city looked different from the outskirts,gray and restless, like it knew we were coming.
Elara sat in the passenger seat, silent, eyes locked on the data feed running across the tablet in her lap. The coordinates from the drone led to an office park that hadn't been used since before the war. Perfect place for an ambush.
I wanted to tell her to stay in the car. I didn't. She wouldn't have listened.
She hadn't spoken much since the ridge. Since Noah's name.
She was focused, but I could feel the way her pulse changed when she said it fast, sharp, betrayed.
The drive ended in silence.
"Third floor," I said, scanning the building with binoculars.
A faint heat signature blinked on one window. "He's alone."
Elara's jaw clenched. "Good."
I reached for her arm. "You go in second. Let me clear the"
She pulled away. "No. I need to see his face."
I almost argued. Instead, I checked my weapon and pushed the door open.
The hallways smelled of dust and rot. The air carried that static stillness before danger strikes.
We climbed the stairs, her steps light behind me.
On the third floor, a door hung open.
I went in first.
The room was lit by a single desk lamp, flickering over old computers and scattered files.
And there he was Noah Pierce, in the flesh. Older, thinner, unshaven. Still in the same worn coat I remembered from the photographs Elara kept in her apartment.
He looked up. His eyes found her immediately. "Elara."
Her name in his voice sounded wrong,too soft for the man who'd sold her out.
"You're alive," he said, almost relieved.
"Don't," I warned, stepping forward.
Noah ignored me. His gaze never left her. "You have to listen to me. You don't understand"
Elara's voice was low, steady, lethal. "I understand you lied. You fed them everything."
He shook his head. "I was protecting you."
"By letting them kill my brother?"
Noah's shoulders sagged. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Ross promised"
"Ross doesn't make promises," I cut in. "He makes graves."
Noah's eyes flicked to me, resentment flaring. "You don't know what he had on us."
"Us?" Elara's voice cracked.
He swallowed. "He had Liam."
That name was a blade in the room.
Noah moved toward the table, picked up a file, and slid it toward her.
I saw the header before she did: PROJECT REVENANT—Subject Callen, L.
Her hand shook as she opened it.
Photos. Reports. Surveillance logs.
Liam alive. Not free.
"They used me to keep you quiet," Noah said. "Ross said if I kept you close, if I steered your story, Liam would live."
She stared at him, disbelief breaking into horror. "You let me mourn him."
"I tried to save you!"
"No," I said, stepping forward. "You tried to save yourself."
He flinched. "You think you're any different, soldier? You covered for them for years."
Maybe he was right. Maybe we were all dirty in our own ways. But I'd stopped pretending it was noble.
Elara's breathing changed—short, fast, angry. "You had a choice, Noah. You always had a choice."
He looked broken now, voice trembling. "So did Liam."
The room went silent.
"What did you just say?" I asked.
Noah glanced between us. "You think Ross took him? Liam joined him. He believed in what they were building. Project Revenant wasn't just cover,it was recruitment."
That stopped even me cold.
Elara shook her head, stepping back. "You're lying."
Noah's voice hardened. "I wish I was."
Then the window shattered.
Gunfire tore through the glass. I grabbed Elara and hit the floor, pulling her behind a cabinet.
Noah ducked behind the desk, shouting something I couldn't hear.
"Backup?" she gasped.
"Ross's men," I said. "They tracked the signal here."
Bullets ripped through the wall. I fired twice through the glass. One target dropped. Another kept moving.
Noah crawled toward the door. "We can't stay"
He didn't finish. The shot came from outside. He fell forward, blood spreading beneath him.
Elara screamed his name and started toward him, but I caught her wrist.
"He's gone," I said.
Her eyes blazed through tears. "He was supposed to answer!"
"We have to move!"
We ran. Down the stairs, through the corridors, gunfire echoing behind us.
When we hit the alley, the rain was falling hard again. I shoved her toward the car.
She turned on me, shaking. "He said Liam joined them. You believe that?"
I looked at her, rain streaking her face. "I don't know what I believe anymore."
Her voice cracked. "Then what do we do now?"
"Find out who Liam really became," I said.
And I meant it.
Elara's POV
The car ride was silent, except for the rain.
Every time I blinked, I saw Noah's face—the moment before the bullet hit.
The man who'd edited my words, guided my stories, stood at my brother's funeral. The man who smiled at me like family.
He said Liam joined Ross. That couldn't be true. It couldn't.
Adrian drove fast, his jaw set, blood drying along his sleeve. The roads blurred past in streaks of gray and gold.
Finally, I said, "You think Noah was telling the truth."
He didn't look at me. "I think he believed he was."
"That's not the same."
"No," he said quietly, "it's worse."
I turned toward the window. "He died for lies."
"We all do eventually."
That made me laugh, sharp and bitter. "You're infuriating."
He almost smiled. "So I've been told."
The silence that followed wasn't angry,it was tired. Raw. We'd both lost too much tonight.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the flash drive I'd grabbed before we ran. "Noah kept this hidden under the desk. Whatever he was working on,it's our next lead."
He glanced at it, then at me. "You should rest."
"I can't."
"You'll need to."
"I said I can't."
His hand found mine on the console, firm but gentle. "Then let me carry some of it for you."
That broke me a little. Not because of what he said, but how he said it quietly, like someone who meant it.
I looked at him, and the distance between us disappeared again.
When he leaned over, his lips brushed mine soft at first, a question, then deeper when I didn't pull away.
The kiss wasn't desperate like before. It was slow, deliberate, heavy with everything we couldn't say.
Grief. Anger. Need.
When we broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine.
"I don't know where this ends," he whispered.
"Neither do I," I said. "But we've already started burning."
He smiled, tired and true. "Then let's make it worth the fire."
Outside, lightning split the sky. The world beyond the windshield was chaos, but inside the car, it was only us two people tied together by loss, by betrayal, and by something neither of us could stop.
As the storm raged on, I closed my eyes and whispered, "We'll find him, Adrian. Whatever it takes."
And in the reflection of the rain on the glass, I thought I saw movement,a flash of light, a shadow watching from the road behind us.
Not gone. Not done.
Liam was still out there.
And the truth was still burning.