6:00 AM – Helix HQ, East Wing – Private Quarters
Dorian couldn't sleep.
Not after what Elira said.
> "I believed in him more than I believed in you."
That phrase haunted him more than the data leak. Elira hadn't just betrayed the system—she'd chosen someone Dorian had buried in the past like a bad memory.
Eron Vale.
The name didn't just come back to haunt him.
It was hunting him.
He poured himself a drink. The glass trembled in his hand.
"Dead men don't pull strings," he whispered.
But doubt was a seed—and it had already sprouted.
---
6:32 AM – Secure Vault Room 3
Inside a subterranean chamber, Dorian stared at the holo-map of all Helix's ghost agents.
A few were flagged as rogue.
Some were flagged as dead.
But only one—Eron Vale—was flagged as "non-existent."
Not KIA.
Not Missing.
Just... deleted.
Dorian frowned. He searched Eron's entry manually.
Nothing.
No birthplace.
No transfer logs.
Not even a psychological profile.
Only one thing existed:
> "Redacted by Board Directive – Level Ω."
And Dorian was on the board.
Someone had out-ranked him.
---
6:47 AM – Encrypted Call, Kamira's Burner
Kamira answered on the fourth buzz.
She didn't speak.
"Is it you?" Dorian asked.
She sighed. "I'm not in the mood."
"You're helping him."
Kamira's silence confirmed it.
"Why?" he demanded.
"I've watched the board lie, erase, and manipulate for decades. You all kill without conscience. But now—now you're afraid of a man with no superpowers, no wealth, and no army."
Dorian said nothing.
Kamira leaned into the silence.
"Imagine what that says about you."
She hung up.
---
7:00 AM – Rooftop Journal Entry – Try #100,005
> Dorian has cracked.
He questions his own file system.
Vaults will shift to manual surveillance.
Today I walk into Helix HQ.
Today, I become visible.
8:12 AM – Helix HQ Lobby – Public Access Wing
The front desk agent barely looked up as the next visitor approached.
A tall man in a gray coat, face partially obscured by tinted glasses and a surgical mask.
He handed over a guest ID slip.
"Name?" the agent asked.
"Rowan Cale," the man replied smoothly.
Fake ID. Real clearance.
The scanner beeped.
Approved.
The agent frowned. "You're cleared for Level 3 access. Escort will meet you upstairs."
The man nodded and stepped toward the elevator.
He didn't flinch.
Because he had walked through this moment 117 times before.
And this time, the pieces were exactly where they needed to be.
---
8:18 AM – Elevator Ride, Level 3
A guard stood silently beside him.
Eron didn't speak.
Didn't need to.
He was calculating.
Route patterns.
Camera blind spots.
Personnel shift overlaps.
Behavioral routines.
In his head, he was already five moves ahead of the building.
They were playing on Day 1.
He was playing on Day 100,005.
---
8:20 AM – Level 3, Archives Division
The escort left him at the glass security checkpoint. Behind it, a bored analyst named Therin ran facial verifications.
Eron stepped forward.
Therin blinked.
Paused.
"Wait… your file says you've been cleared by Director Dorian himself?"
Eron nodded slowly. "It was pushed an hour ago."
Therin checked. The override was real.
Because Eron had sent the override himself, disguised as Dorian's voice ID… 46 retries ago.
The system still hadn't noticed.
Therin shrugged and unlocked the chamber.
"You've got 10 minutes. Swipe logs if you touch anything."
Eron gave a polite nod, then stepped into Helix's historical memory vault.
---
8:23 AM – Inside the Vault
He moved fast, but calm.
Terminal 7. Internal Project Logs.
He pulled up the original documentation of the Vault-7 initiation, logged under a false operation titled Project Harrow.
Inside?
The original documents that showed Malco Frey's private execution list—the erased agents that no one had ever admitted existed.
Kamira's team.
Eron's team.
Himself.
He copied the files to a neural shard and calmly set the timer on a ghost-code virus.
In exactly 21 hours, the files would be auto-delivered to every journalist and corporate rival in the network.
Unless he stopped the countdown.
But Eron didn't plan to stop anything anymore.
---
8:30 AM – Rooftop Journal Entry – Try #100,005 (continued)
> Archive breach complete.
Malco's sins documented.
Dorian's doubt confirmed.
Kamira's faith uncertain.
Now I burn the rope and light the fuse.
9:00 AM – Helix HQ, Malco's Office
Malco Frey paced in front of his sleek, digital desk. His hands clenched into fists as he glared at the encrypted warning on his screen:
> Alert: Unauthorized access detected in Archives Division. Files transferred to external system.
A bead of sweat formed on his brow. The notification wasn't just a security breach—it was a message.
Someone was playing him.
He pressed a button, bringing up the internal surveillance footage from the Archives Division. His heart dropped as he saw the timestamp match a ghost ID he didn't recognize: Rowan Cale.
The elevator footage was clear, but not the face.
---
9:05 AM – Malco's Thought Process
Whoever this was, they had mirrored the system. They were invisible. Even with every access clearance in place, they had walked through Helix as though they were a part of the building itself.
And that wasn't just skill. That was someone who knew exactly how to break the system from the inside.
Malco knew one thing for certain: this wasn't a new player in the game. This was someone with experience, someone who had been watching.
---
9:10 AM – Secure Data Center, Level 5
Kamira Nael sat in front of a terminal, her eyes scanning over the most recent breach logs.
She had been expecting this. She had been waiting for it.
Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't sure where Eron had gone this time, but she knew—he had triggered something. He had unleashed a storm inside the most secure network in the world.
Kamira checked her phone. The shard had arrived.
It was time.
She stood up, straightened her coat, and left the room. She had to make a call. Eron had already made his move. Now it was her turn.
---
9:20 AM – Dorian's Office
Dorian stared out over the city, looking down at the steel jungle below. His hands were still trembling from the earlier call with Kamira. She wasn't wrong. His doubts were growing.
And Eron's influence was expanding faster than anyone could understand.
He had to make a choice.
The system was broken—he couldn't ignore it any longer. The question now was: Which side of the fracture would he stand on?
---
9:30 AM – Malco's Office, Emergency Briefing
Malco slammed his fist on the table, shaking the digital display of his private command center.
"Initiate full lockdown protocols," he barked at his assistants. "I want every exit covered. Every employee and contractor accounted for. This person—whoever they are—has breached our most secure archives. Find them."
The room buzzed with activity as teams scrambled to execute his orders.
"Get me a list of who had access to Rowan Cale's clearance. And track that burn phone. Now."
He knew something important was happening—something bigger than just a hack. Someone was manipulating all the right strings.
---
9:45 AM – Rooftop Journal Entry – Try #100,006
> The breach is complete.
Malco's fury will fuel the fire.
Kamira's on the move.
Dorian stands at the edge.
The game has begun.
It is no longer about survival—it is about control.
---
9:50 AM – Helix HQ, Emergency Response
A technician rushed to Malco's office with a red alert flashing on his tablet.
"Sir," the technician said, breathless, "we've located the device that was used to access the archives."
Malco's eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
The technician swallowed hard.
"In the East Wing. It's connected to an external system... It's not ours."
Malco's mind raced. The East Wing was completely sealed off. It was only used for high-level emergency protocols, and even then, it was only accessible to him and a handful of directors.
The technician hesitated before continuing.
"And… the device? It's still active."
Malco's gaze darkened.
"Shut it down. Now."
10:00 AM – Helix HQ, East Wing
The corridors were eerily quiet, as they always were when Malco Frey was on a warpath.
He strode down the hall, flanked by his most trusted agents. Their black tactical uniforms blended into the walls, but Malco was the centerpiece. His presence commanded the room, and even his most seasoned operatives could feel the cold, unyielding focus radiating off of him.
They reached the door to the East Wing's server room. The security team stepped forward to scan the biometric lock, but Malco raised a hand.
"Step aside," he ordered, his voice low and sharp.
The technician quickly complied, allowing Malco to scan his own palm. The door clicked open, revealing rows of servers, each humming with activity.
The room felt too small, too quiet. There was something off about it.
"Find the device," Malco barked. His agents fanned out, eyes scanning for anything out of place.
Moments passed. The tension built.
Then, one of the agents found it—an out-of-place terminal connected to a rogue device, still active, blinking its steady pulse like a heartbeat in the middle of the storm.
Malco moved toward it, his eyes narrowing as he examined the display.
It was Eron's work. The rogue system had been designed to create a pathway back to the ghost server, bypassing all the firewalls and security layers Helix had in place.
It was a blueprint.
Eron had been inside Helix HQ the entire time.
---
10:15 AM – Outside the East Wing
Kamira stood in the shadows of the building's exterior, looking up at the stark glass windows of the East Wing. She could feel the tension in the air as Malco's agents closed in on Eron's location.
But Kamira wasn't here to help Eron escape.
She was here to watch.
Eron had a plan—she knew that. But she couldn't help him anymore. There were too many questions, too many risks. If things fell apart, she couldn't be seen as an accomplice.
Her burner phone buzzed.
It was a message from Eron:
> "The file is live. Do what you need to do. The next move is on you."
Kamira's heart raced. Eron had just detonated the first part of his plan, but he needed her to act on the next phase. If Malco discovered the breach, everything would fall apart.
But Kamira wasn't ready to make a move just yet.
---
10:30 AM – Helix HQ, Malco's Office
Malco stood in front of the secure terminal in his office, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts. The rogue access device was dismantled, but that wasn't the end. The breach had been far too deep, far too clean. Whoever had orchestrated this had known exactly how to hide in the shadows.
The ghost server was still pulsing in the background, and Malco's gut twisted in realization.
This was more than a leak.
This was a declaration of war.
His phone buzzed.
> "Malco. We have intel. You need to stop what you're doing. Eron Vale's movements are far from over. Don't underestimate him."
The message was from Dorian. The man he'd thought he could rely on.
But the message carried an edge—Dorian was losing control too.
Malco slammed the phone down, frustration boiling over. He knew he couldn't allow Eron to win this. He needed to eliminate him.
---
10:40 AM – Rooftop Journal Entry – Try #100,007
> The breach has escalated.
Malco scrambles, but he won't understand until it's too late.
Kamira's faith in me is fragile, but necessary.
The final piece is in motion.
This time, no one can stop it.
Time to walk out of the shadows.
---
11:00 AM – Helix HQ, Main Floor
Dorian stood near the glass windows of the main floor, his fingers tapping against the cold, smooth surface. The events were unfolding faster than he had predicted. The data breach, Elira's confession, Kamira's disappearance, and now Malco's heavy-handed retaliation.
And through it all, Eron had stayed two steps ahead.
The weight of responsibility bore down on Dorian. If he chose to side with Eron, he risked losing everything. But if he chose Malco, he would be aligning with a corrupt system that had already shown its true face.
He turned from the window, his decision made.
---
11:30 AM – Helix HQ, Emergency Response
Malco stood before his security team, frustration clouding his judgment. He couldn't let Eron get away with this.
"We need every department on lockdown," he ordered. "I don't care who you have to interrogate. We find him. Now."
But just as the words left his mouth, his phone buzzed again. A message from Dorian:
> "It's over, Malco. You won't win this. Eron is already inside."
Malco's heart skipped. He was losing control.
But he wasn't ready to give up.
Not yet.