The private jet ride from Monaco to the Swiss Alps was a study in suffocating silence.
Lia sat in a cream-colored leather c
aptain's chair, staring out at the moonlight reflecting off the Mediterranean as it vanished behind them. Across the aisle, Sebastian was buried in a mountain of digital tablets, his brow furrowed in a way that made him look less like a titan of industry and more like a man trying to read a language that had been erased from history.
He didn't look up, but she knew he was watching her. The biometric sensors in the cabin were probably feeding him her heart rate, her skin temperature, even the moisture levels of her palms. In Sebastian's world, privacy wasn't something you had; it was something he allowed.
"You're thinking about the exit," he said, his voice cutting through the hum of the engines.
Lia didn't turn. "I'm thinking about the terms. You mentioned thirty days. I want that in a binding contract. Full access to the Voss Dynamics central server, Level Seven clearance, and no 'accidental' monitoring of my personal communications."
Sebastian let out a short, dry laugh. He set the tablet down and leaned toward her, his presence invading her space even across the aisle. "You're a cybersecurity specialist who just admitted to hacking my Berlin node, and you want me to give you a key to the vault?"
"You want your life back, Sebastian. I'm the only one who can find the threads." Lia finally turned to look at him. "You're scared. You've spent your whole career being the man who knows everything. Now, you're the man who knows nothing, and you're terrified that whatever is in that black box of yours is going to destroy you."
His eyes darkened—a flash of the predatory Sebastian she remembered from the Alps. "I'm not scared of the truth. I'm scared of the person who's holding the map. Why do you hate me so much, Liora? Is it really just your brother?"
"Just my brother?" Lia's voice went sharp as a razor. "He was the only family I had. He believed in your vision. He thought Voss Dynamics was going to save the world, not turn it into a digital panopticon. And when he found out the cost, he was 'deleted.' That's how you operate, isn't it? You delete the things that don't fit."
Sebastian flinched. It was subtle—a slight tightening of his jaw—but she saw it.
"If I did that," he said quietly, "then I deserve whatever you have planned for me. But I don't remember it. And until I do, I'm not a murderer. I'm just a man who wants to know why he wakes up screaming."
He reached out, his hand hovering over hers on the armrest. He didn't touch her, but the heat radiating from him was a physical weight.
"Don't," Lia whispered.
"Don't what?"
"Don't try to make me feel sorry for you. I'm here for the evidence. Nothing else."
"We'll see," he murmured.
Two hours later, a black SUV deposited them at the base of a structure that looked like it had been carved out of the mountain itself. The Citadel. It was a masterpiece of glass, steel, and stone, perched on a precipice overlooking a jagged valley.
This was where it had happened.
As the heavy armored doors slid shut behind them, Lia felt a wave of nausea. The air inside was pressurized, filtered, and smelled of the same ozone and expensive cedar that had haunted her nightmares.
"Welcome back," a cool, feminine voice echoed.
"That's Hera," Sebastian said, gesturing to the air. "The house AI. She manages the security, the climate, and... my schedule."
"And the neural-interface logs?" Lia asked.
"Hera, grant Liora Reyes 'Consultant' status. Override all sub-protocols except the Black Room."
"Status granted, Sebastian," the AI replied. "Shall I prepare the guest suite?"
"No," Sebastian said, his eyes locked on Lia. "She'll stay in the East Wing. Adjacent to my quarters."
Lia's pulse spiked. "The East Wing is private, Sebastian. I'd prefer the guest house."
"The East Wing is where the laboratory is," he countered. "And if we're going to do this, we work through the night. I don't have thirty days to waste on your comfort."
He walked ahead, his gait commanding, leaving her to follow. As they passed through the living area—a vast, minimalist space with a floating fireplace—Lia's eyes scanned for cameras. She saw them everywhere, hidden in the recessed lighting, the shadow-casting of the sculptures.
She needed to get her own hardware online. She had a "Ghost-Drive" tucked in her heels that would let her create a localized blind spot in Hera's vision, but she needed to be in a secure room to deploy it.
Sebastian stopped at a set of double glass doors. He hesitated, his hand hovering over the biometric scanner.
"This is the room," he said.
Lia stood beside him. Through the glass, she could see the lab. It was surgical, white, and dominated by a high-tech reclining chair surrounded by a halo of monitors and fiber-optic cables.
The Neural-Interface v.4.2.
The last time she had seen that chair, Sebastian had been strapped into it, his eyes rolling back in his head as the "Lethe" protocol she'd uploaded tore through his synaptic pathways. She remembered the sheer terror she'd felt—not for him, but for the fact that she was becoming the very thing she hated.
"Hera, show the logs from the night of the explosion," Sebastian ordered.
The monitors flickered to life. A timestamp appeared: April 14th. 22:14.
Lia watched the screen. She saw the grainy security footage of the lab. Sebastian was in the chair. He was alone—or so the camera showed. Lia knew she had been there, standing in the blind spot she'd hacked into the system that night.
On the screen, the lab suddenly erupted. Not in fire, but in a blinding flash of white light. The neural-interface flared, a surge of blue electricity arcing from the headset to the central server. Sebastian's body jerked violently, his back arching, a silent scream frozen on his face.
Then, the feed went to static.
Sebastian was staring at the screen, his face pale. "The doctors said it was an external surge. Sabotage. They found traces of a virus in the mainframe. A virus called 'Nemesis'."
Lia kept her face a mask of professional curiosity. "Nemesis. Dramatic name."
"It's the name of the goddess of retribution," Sebastian said, turning to her. "Someone wanted me to pay. Someone wanted me to lose my mind. And you know what the strange part is?"
"What?"
"In the five seconds of static before the backup power kicked in, the audio sensors picked up a voice. It wasn't mine. It wasn't Hera's."
He stepped closer to her, his shadow falling over her face.
"Hera, play the audio clip. Isolated frequency 402."
A low, distorted hiss filled the room. Underneath the static, a woman's voice whispered, barely audible but clear enough to pierce Lia's heart.
"Forget what you love. Remember what you've done."
Lia felt the blood drain from her extremities. It was her voice. She'd forgotten she'd said it. In that moment of fury, she'd leaned over him and whispered her brother's name, followed by that curse.
Sebastian was so close now she could feel his breath on her cheek.
"Does that voice sound familiar to you, Lia?"
She didn't look away. She couldn't. "It sounds like a woman who lost everything. If I were her, I'd have done more than just wipe your memory. I'd have burned the building down with you in it."
Sebastian's hand came up, his thumb tracing the line of her lower lip. The touch was agonizingly slow, a test of her resolve.
"You're a terrible liar," he whispered. "Your heart rate is 112 beats per minute. Your pupils are dilated. You aren't angry right now, Liora. You're terrified. But not of me."
"Then what am I afraid of?" she challenged, her voice trembling.
"You're afraid that the 'monster' you think I am doesn't exist anymore. And you're afraid of what you feel for the man who's left behind."
He leaned in, his lips inches from hers. The tension was a living thing, a wire pulled so taut it was humming. Lia's hands were flat against his chest, intending to push him away, but her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt instead.
She wanted to kill him. She wanted to kiss him. The two urges were so intertwined she couldn't tell them apart.
Just as his lips were about to brush hers, a red light began to pulse in the hallway.
"Sebastian," Hera's voice interrupted, sounding strangely distorted. "We have a secondary breach. Level One. The security perimeter has been compromised by an external tactical team."
The moment shattered. Sebastian snapped back into "Voss Dynamics" mode, his eyes turning to the screens. "Show me."
The monitors shifted to the exterior cameras. Half a dozen figures in black tactical gear were rappelling down the glass face of the building.
"Julian's men," Sebastian hissed. "He's not waiting for me to fail. He's coming to finish the job."
He turned to Lia, his expression grim. "You wanted into my world, Liora? Here it is. The board is moving, and you're the only person who knows how to stop them from erasing me for good."
He grabbed a sleek, black handgun from a hidden compartment under the console and pressed it into her hand.
"Can you shoot as well as you hack?"
Lia checked the safety, her eyes hardening. "Better. But don't think this makes us friends, Sebastian."
"I don't want a friend," he said, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her toward the emergency stairs. "I want an accomplice. Now move!"
As they plunged into the dark heart of the fortress, Lia realized the game had changed. She had come to find the "Kill Switch" to destroy him. But as the first sounds of gunfire echoed through the glass halls, she realized she was going to have to save the monster's life before she could ever hope to take it.