The silence in the penthouse was thick, but for once, it wasn't the silence of a prank or a hardware bypass.
The battle in the lobby was over. Don Rico was in handcuffs, and the "Basement Suitor" had been permanently banned from the district. Philip was currently on the sofa, nursing a bruised knuckle and bragging to Phenphen about his "dual-stanchion" technique.
"Master, we did it," Phenphen murmured, his laptop finally closing. "The data is secure. Bella's company is clean."
Chano stood by the window, looking out at the city lights. He should have felt a sense of victory, but his "technician's instinct"—the one that told him when a circuit was about to blow—was screaming.
"Something's wrong," Chano muttered.
"Don't be such a pessimist, Chano-san," Rina said, walking over with two mugs of coffee. She looked exhausted, her glasses slightly crooked. "We won. There are no more variables."
"There's always one variable, Rina," Chano replied. "The person who gave Don Rico the encryption keys in the first place. Rico was good, but he wasn't that good."
Suddenly, every screen in the penthouse—the Command Center monitors, the smart-fridge, even Philip's tablet—flickered. The warm colors of the room were replaced by a blinding, clinical white. In the center of every display, a single, serif-style letter appeared in deep crimson:
L
"What the— Phenphen! I thought you locked the exterior ports!" Philip shouted, jumping up.
"I did! Everything is offline!" Phenphen yelled, his fingers flying across his keyboard. "It's not coming from the internet, Master... it's coming from inside the hardware. It was pre-installed!"
The Voice from the Void
A voice began to play through the high-end speakers. It was calm, melodic, and terrifyingly familiar to Rina.
"Efficiency is beauty, isn't it?" the voice said. "I must say, using a Labubu plushie as a sonic weapon... that was a touch of local flavor I didn't anticipate. You've grown quite creative, Chano."
Rina's mug hit the floor, shattering into a thousand shards. Her face went pale, her hands shaking as she stared at the red L.
"Rina?" Chano asked, stepping toward her. "You okay?"
"It's him," she whispered. "The Architect of the Void. My... my mentor."
The voice on the speaker laughed softly. "Mentor is such a cold word, Rina. I prefer 'creator.' You were my masterpiece until you developed a conscience. And Chano... you were the one I wanted to meet. I sent Rico just to see if you were actually as sharp as the rumors say. You passed."
The Ultimatum
The screen shifted. The L vanished, replaced by a live satellite feed of the BGC tower. A red reticule was centered directly on their floor.
"I don't play for money like the Scorpion Group, and I don't play for ego like Rico," the voice continued. "I play for the code. And right now, the code says you're an anomaly that needs to be corrected."
"What do you want?" Chano barked at the ceiling.
"I want to see if a simple technician can protect a Queen when the lights go out," the voice replied. "The hunt is officially open. Try to stay alive for at least twenty-four hours. It would be such a waste to delete you so soon."
The screens went black. The lights returned to normal. Chano looked at the team. Philip was reaching for his gear, Marco was already on the phone with his tactical units, and Rina was staring at her hands, tears welling in her eyes.
"He found me," Rina sobbed. "Chano, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to lead him to you."
Chano walked over and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. The playful "Master" was gone.
"He didn't find us, Rina," Chano said, his voice cold as steel. "He just made a mistake. He gave me a reason to stop playing nice."