The private jet cut a silver path through the steel-gray Atlantic sky, engines humming like a persistent, cold heartbeat. Inside the pressurized silence, the world outside might as well have been another planet.
Audrey sat across from Sebastian in the sleek leather cabin, her elbows resting on the armrest, one gloved hand slowly tracing the worn seam. Her eyes weren't on him—they were on the printed dossier between them, creased and stained with coffee rings and red markings.
On the top page: Lucien Moreau.
His younger face stared back—sharp bones, clipped hair, the faint scar curling beneath his left eye like a secret only she knew.
"Heretic," she whispered, the codename tasting like ash on her tongue. "That's what they called him."
Sebastian leaned forward, forearms on his knees. "Fontaine erased his real identity from every archive we cracked. All that's left is the ghost."
Victor Donovan, seated just behind them, set his drink down with a precise clink. "Not entirely."
He slid forward a scorched intake form, the edges brittle, the ink faded.
A single name in smudged handwriting lingered like a wound.
"Lucien Moreau."
Audrey's breath caught. Her pupils narrowed.
"I knew him," she murmured. "Not just in the project. Before that. We trained together. He was… kind. Once."
Sebastian's jaw tightened. "What changed?"
She looked up at him, gaze cold and unreadable. "I did."
FLASHBACK — MARSEILLE, FIVE YEARS EARLIER
Sun-baked dust swirled through the military training compound. The slap of boots on concrete. Distant shouts. Gunfire.
Audrey crouched behind a half-crumbled wall, her breathing fast and shallow. Sweat clung to her skin, stinging her eyes.
Then—
"You're holding your breath again," a voice said behind her. Smooth. Low. Unmistakable.
Lucien.
She whirled, raising her weapon. He didn't flinch.
"Force of habit," she muttered.
"You'll miss your shot."
"Only if I want to."
He smiled, slow and rare. "Then don't miss me."
They hadn't kissed. Not yet. But that moment, that look—it had been a promise. One neither of them ever got the chance to keep.
Lucien volunteered for Project Heretic first. Proudly. Blindly.
Audrey? She was conscripted.
By the time Fontaine sank his claws into her, Lucien had already vanished into the system—transformed, reprogrammed, reborn into something else.
PRESENT DAY
Audrey opened her eyes. "He chose it. Whatever monster he's become… it wasn't forced."
Sebastian slid closer, fingers brushing hers. "Then we finish it."
Victor adjusted his cuffs with military precision. "You're going to Geneva. Fontaine's last known biotech proxy—Lysara Group—is buried there. Officially dissolved last year. But funds were rerouted recently. Quietly."
Sebastian's voice darkened. "What if it's a dead end?"
Victor's gaze didn't waver. "Then we make it loud."
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Snow whispered down onto the empty industrial district like falling ash. The streetlamps flickered, casting long shadows across abandoned buildings and shuttered labs.
Dressed in tactical black, Audrey and Sebastian slipped between two concrete shells, footsteps muted on the frost-slicked ground.
"There," Audrey pointed. "Lysara HQ. Cameras, no guards. Too clean."
Sebastian frowned. "It's bait."
"We take it anyway."
Inside, the air was heavy with dust and old secrets.
First floor: empty desks, dead terminals.
Second: gutted labs, shredded files, a faint chemical sting in the air.
Third: hum. Heat. Power.
Server room.
Audrey moved fast, bypassing encryption, her breath fogging against the cold metal casing. Sebastian stood watch, weapon half-raised.
Then the screen flickered.
ACCESS GRANTED >> PLAYBACK INITIATED
Lucien's face emerged from the static. Sharper now. Paler. Detached.
"If you're watching this, ma petite étoile… you came looking."
Audrey's spine straightened. Her heart turned ice.
That nickname.
Only one man had ever used it.
"I knew you'd come. You were always too stubborn to stay dead."
Sebastian glanced at her, brows tightening.
Lucien's tone softened, almost fond. "They broke us both. Fontaine made sure of it. But you—" he smiled faintly—"you got out. You ran. And now… you've brought him with you. Sebastian Donovan. The heir."
His eyes darkened.
"Tell him to ask his father about the Aegis Protocol."
A pause.
"Tell him to ask how many died to bury it."
The video cut to black.
A beat of silence.
Then—click.
The building's power dropped.
Red emergency lights spun to life. Alarms screamed.
"They knew," Sebastian hissed, grabbing Audrey's wrist.
She was already moving. "Then let's not disappoint them."
Down the hall. Through the stairwell. Floor shaking beneath their boots—
BOOM.
A detonation ripped through the third floor, sending concrete and steel raining down. Smoke filled the corridor. They dove through the nearest window as glass exploded outward—
And vanished into the night.
Across the street—rooftop vantage point
Lucien watched the fire spread across the Lysara building.
His gloved hands rested on the edge of the rail, breath misting. He made no move to intervene.
"She's still perfect," he whispered.
Then, to the figure in the shadows beside him—one cloaked in black, silent, obedient—he added:
"Tell Fontaine… she's coming. And this time, she's bringing hell."
The wind howled over Geneva.
But it couldn't drown the sound of war returning.