Viktor Kane broke protocol.
He hadn't done that in years.
Inside the command spire, buried beneath layers of reinforced steel and classified silence, Viktor stood alone before a secured terminal. The lights were dimmed, the walls humming softly with hidden machinery. His reflection stared back at him from the darkened screen—sharp eyes, controlled posture, a man who had built hell and ruled it without question.
Until now.
He replayed the footage again.
Leena in the snow.
Calm.
Unafraid.
Watching him.
Not challenging.
Judging.
Viktor's jaw tightened.
This was no longer a training anomaly.
No longer an asset gone rogue.
This was a threat.
He placed his palm against the biometric scanner.
"Priority override," he said coldly.
The system hesitated—just long enough to remind him that even he was not absolute here.
Then it unlocked.
Viktor accessed a channel few ever used.
"Requesting reinforcements," he said. "Full combat deployment."
There was a pause on the other end.
"That facility is classified," a voice replied. "Training operations only."
Viktor's eyes hardened.
"If they remain unchecked," he said evenly, "this facility will be lost."
Silence.
Then—
"Authorization granted. Two hundred personnel. Fully equipped. Kill-on-sight."
The screen went dark.
Viktor exhaled slowly.
Two hundred soldiers.
Enough to bury any rebellion.
Enough to erase two girls from existence.
Or so he told himself.
The first transport arrived at dawn.
Then another.
And another.
Heavy aircraft cut through the frozen sky, their shadows crawling across the wasteland like predators of steel. Containers dropped. Weapons were unloaded. Command tents rose where ruins once stood.
Two hundred men and women.
Elite.
Experienced.
Armed with enough firepower to level a small city.
They were not trainees.
They were soldiers.
And they were given one order.
"Find them."
Leena watched from the ridge.
The wind tore at her jacket, snow whipping past her face as she observed the mobilization below through a scope she had modified herself. Mara lay beside her, counting movements, marking routes, memorizing formations.
"They're spreading wide," Mara said. "Grid search."
"They're afraid of being cornered," Leena replied. "Good."
Mara glanced at her. "Two hundred is a lot."
Leena lowered the scope.
"Yes," she agreed calmly. "That's why they'll make mistakes."
She turned away from the ridge.
"We don't fight them head-on," Leena said. "We don't defend territory."
Mara nodded slowly.
"We become the terrain."
The first week was chaos.
The soldiers moved in squads of ten, sweeping ruins, forests, tunnels, frozen rivers. Drones filled the sky. Sensors were planted. Thermal imaging swept every shadow.
And still—
They vanished.
A patrol failed to report in.
Then another.
Then an entire squad went silent.
No explosions.
No firefights.
Just absence.
The commanders blamed terrain.
Equipment failure.
Environmental interference.
They doubled patrols.
That only made it worse.
Leena and Mara struck like whispers.
A snare here—barely visible beneath ice.
A collapsed tunnel there—triggered at the perfect moment.
A single suppressed shot that echoed like nothing at all.
They never attacked twice from the same direction.
Never left patterns long enough to be studied.
Bodies were discovered days later.
Frozen.
Precise.
Unmarked except for clean kills.
Fear began to spread.
Soldiers started glancing over shoulders.
Checking shadows twice.
Sleeping in shifts even when exhausted.
At night, some swore they heard footsteps circling camps that were supposedly secure.
Others claimed they saw movement just beyond the edge of light.
Viktor received reports hourly.
Losses: 18.
Then 41.
Then 73.
He crushed a metal cup in his hand without realizing it.
"They're just two," one officer insisted. "We'll flush them out."
Viktor didn't answer.
Because he knew.
They weren't being hunted.
They were being culled.
By the second week, command structure was fraying.
Two hundred had become one hundred and twelve.
Then ninety.
Morale collapsed faster than numbers.
Soldiers stopped volunteering for forward patrols.
Squads refused to advance without air support.
Some fired at shadows.
Leena watched it all unfold with detached focus.
"They're burning themselves out," Mara said one night as they rested in an abandoned bunker, its walls scarred with old bullet marks.
"Yes."
Mara cleaned her blade carefully. "How many left?"
Leena checked the intercepted data she'd memorized earlier.
"Thirty-two."
Mara froze.
"…Thirty-two?"
Leena nodded.
"Two weeks," Mara whispered. "Two hundred down to thirty-two."
She looked up slowly.
"They're terrified of us."
Leena didn't smile.
Fear was useful—but it was also dangerous.
"Fear makes people desperate," she said. "And desperate people do stupid things."
As if summoned by her words, a distant explosion rolled across the wasteland.
Mara stood immediately. "That wasn't us."
"No," Leena said quietly. "That was them."
The remaining soldiers had made a decision.
If they couldn't find the hunters—
They would burn the forest.
Explosives tore through old structures.
Flares turned night into artificial day.
Heavy weapons pulverized terrain that had hidden Leena and Mara for months.
The wasteland screamed.
Leena felt it in her bones.
"This ends tonight," Mara said grimly.
"Yes," Leena agreed.
They moved as one.
No hesitation.
No discussion.
They slipped through the chaos, using smoke and noise as cover. Soldiers were no longer cautious—they were frantic.
That made them predictable.
The first group never saw Leena.
She came from above, dropping silently into their formation, striking fast and vanishing before the echoes faded.
Mara hit the perimeter seconds later, cutting off retreat.
The remaining soldiers broke.
Some ran.
Some begged.
Some fired wildly.
It didn't matter.
By dawn, the search was over.
Thirty-two had become—
Six.
Those six barricaded themselves inside a reinforced command shelter, weapons trained on every entrance, eyes wild with exhaustion.
Outside, Leena and Mara stood in the snow, blood drying dark against their gear.
Mara exhaled shakily. "This is insane."
Leena stared at the shelter.
"No," she said. "This is inevitability."
A speaker crackled to life from inside.
"This is Command!" a voice shouted, cracking. "We can negotiate!"
Leena stepped forward.
Her voice carried easily through the cold air.
"You came here to kill us."
Silence.
"You failed."
More silence.
"We are leaving," Leena continued. "Now."
The door creaked open slowly.
Six soldiers emerged.
Weapons dropped.
Hands raised.
They didn't look like soldiers anymore.
They looked like survivors.
Leena watched them walk away without another word.
Mara turned to her. "You're letting them go?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Leena's eyes shifted toward the distant spire where Viktor Kane waited.
"Because Viktor needs witnesses."
Far away, Viktor received the final report.
Active personnel remaining: 32… 14… 6.
Then—
Search operation terminated.
No confirmation of enemy elimination.
Viktor stared at the screen.
Two weeks.
Two hundred soldiers.
Gone.
He felt it then.
Not doubt.
Not anger.
Fear.
For the first time since he built this place, Viktor Kane understood the truth.
He had created something he could not control.
And now—
It was coming for him.
End of Chapter 21