The moment Jonas Ford pulled the trigger, time slowed.
Nam twisted, the bullet grazing his shoulder as he slammed the vault terminal shut and dove behind a titanium drawer. The hard drive was in his pocket—but the danger was in front of him.
"I should've known," Ford growled, reloading calmly. "Only a ghost would infiltrate this deep. You're not MI6. You're not CIA. What are you?"
Nam stood slowly, one hand on his bleeding arm, the other subtly reaching for the compact sonic emitter on his belt. "I'm the consequence," he said.
Ford's eyes narrowed. "Of what?"
"Of every life you erased without blinking."
He activated the emitter.
A deafening pulse of subsonic sound filled the vault—inaudible to the crowd above, but enough to make Ford stagger, clutching his temples. Nam lunged, striking hard with a side kick that sent the older man crashing into the wall of safes.
The emitter burned out. One use. That was all it gave him.
Nam bolted for the exit. Alina's voice rang in: "Security just noticed the power glitch. You have sixty seconds before lockdown."
He sprinted down the corridor, shed his jacket, and pulled on a waiter's coat hidden behind a statue alcove. By the time he emerged into the main hall, he was just another servant clearing away champagne glasses.
Then—
Boom.
An explosion echoed from below. Screams tore through the gala. Guests scattered. Smoke began to pour from the east wing.
"What the hell is going on?" shouted a guard.
Alina whispered, "That was Plan B. You're welcome."
Nam reached the emergency exit, stepped into the night air, and didn't look back.
Two hours later. A dim safehouse in the Carpathian Mountains.
Nam sat by a lantern, shoulder bandaged, hard drive connected to a decrypted laptop.
Alina stood behind him. "Did you see what was in that file?"
He nodded. "Not everything. But enough."
The Siren Protocol wasn't just surveillance. It was a blueprint for psychological warfare—AI-enhanced profiling, civilian manipulation, staged chaos. Every major city had a version. Every uprising? Every market crash?
Some weren't accidents.
Alina's voice dropped. "Nam... this isn't just Ford. This is global."
Nam's eyes darkened. "Then so is our fight."