The wind roared against the open chopper doors, but inside, silence settled over the team like fog. Nam sat at the edge, his hands gripping the steel frame, eyes locked on the inferno shrinking below. The mission had succeeded—technically. But something felt wrong. Too smooth. Too… calculated.
Alina broke the silence. "We've cut the relay, but the virus wasn't isolated. Kaas expected that."
Nam didn't answer immediately. His mind was running faster than ever—Kaas's voice echoed in his memory: "You're predictable."
Hana turned from the cockpit, her jaw tight. "I checked the logs. There was a pulse before our EMP—milliseconds earlier. He copied our intrusion pattern and mimicked it. Kaas didn't lose access—he gained more."
Nam stood. "He used us. Let us in, just enough to trace our entire framework. We handed him the encryption patterns to the UN Cyber Defense Grid."
"And we still don't know who the mole is," Hana muttered. "Someone on the inside is feeding him intel."
Alina's voice was low. "Or… someone here."
The cabin tensed. All eyes shifted—subtle, but sharp.
Nam raised a hand. "Enough. We can't start a witch hunt—not now. We return to Geneva. We regroup. We rethink everything."
As the city lights emerged on the horizon, so did an encrypted transmission on Hana's console. She frowned. "It's from Keiji… but his signal was terminated last week."
Nam moved beside her. "Open it."
The screen lit up with static, then a distorted voice: "—Nam… not safe… they've turned Geneva… the Council is compromised. Kaas is already inside—"
The feed cut.
Everyone stared at the monitor.
Alina spoke first. "If Geneva is compromised, going back would be walking into a trap."
Nam nodded. "Then we don't go to Geneva."
Hana raised an eyebrow. "Then where?"
Nam's gaze steeled. "We go dark. Off-grid. We find the mole. We rebuild our network. And then… we take the fight to Kaas."
The chopper veered west, away from the glowing skyline. As dawn broke on the horizon, so did the true war—no longer just digital, but one that would test loyalties, trust, and the very fate of what remained of freedom.