SURRENDER

SURRENDER
LUCA ROMANO - POV

Isabella's breathing is the only sound I trust right now.

She's asleep on the motel bed, finally. One hand curled over her stomach like she's already protecting them. The twins. Six weeks along and we've dragged her through a forest, away from soldiers, toward a half-sister who wants to start a war. She needs rest. What she's getting is maybe two hours before we have to move again.

I stand at the window watching the parking lot. Old habit. Always watching.

"We can't walk into Elena's meeting." Marco's voice is quiet behind me. His wheelchair positioned where he can see both the door and Isabella. "It's suicide."

"Staying hidden is worse." I don't turn around. Keep watching the lot. "Elena attacks tonight if we don't show. Two hundred enhanced prisoners released angry. That's not a threat, that's a massacre."

"So we hand Isabella over?" Nico's pacing. I can hear his boots on the cheap carpet. Caged animal energy that means he's scared. "Let Elena take her? Study her like Vincent did?"

"I'm not suggesting that."

"Then what?" Dante closes his laptop. He's been researching for hours, looking for something we can use. "Because our options are shit and getting worse."

I turn from the window. Face my brothers.

"We surrender."

The word sits there like a body nobody wants to move.

Marco's expression doesn't change. He's processing, running scenarios. Dante's eyes narrow. Nico stops pacing.

"Explain." Marco. Always needing the full picture before he commits.

"Director Katherine Walsh. FBI Enhanced Affairs Division." I've been thinking about this since Dante found Elena's message. Since I realized we're out of moves that don't end with someone dead. "I've read her file. Every case she's handled. Every decision on record. She's different from the others."

"Different how?" Dante leans forward. "Because government officials who want to study us versus the ones who want to eliminate us isn't actually different. Just a slower death."

"She evacuated enhanced prisoners from that Detroit facility." I've got the details memorized. Intelligence gathering from back when I thought we might need allies someday. "Before extremists fire-bombed it. Lost two years of career momentum because she prioritized lives over protocol."

"One decent act doesn't make her trustworthy." Nico's jaw is tight. "She's still government. They all want the same thing in the end."

"She testified before Congress." I meet his eyes. "Advocating for enhanced rights. Alone. Against her own department's official position. They buried her in desk work after. She's been filing reports nobody reads for three years."

"So she's ineffective and idealistic." Marco's voice is flat. "That helps us how?"

"She has access." I pull up Walsh's file on my phone. Show them her clearance levels, her connections. "Intelligence networks. Resources. Military support if we need it. Everything we need to stop Elena without starting the war she wants."

"In exchange for what?" Dante's already seeing the transaction underneath. "Walsh gets us. Studies us. We become lab rats with better cages."

"She gets Elena." I'm careful with my words. Need them to understand. "Intelligence on the attack. Locations, timing, enhanced army details. We trade information for amnesty."

"Amnesty." Nico laughs, but there's no humor in it. "They'll never agree."

"They will if we prove we're more valuable as allies." I'm betting everything on this. Have to be certain. "We help stop Elena's attack. Non-lethally. Show that enhanced individuals can work with government peacefully. That we're not all Vincent."

"And if Walsh betrays us?" Marco asks. "Hands us to extremists or scientists?"

"Then we're exactly where we'd be anyway." I hold his gaze. "Hunted. Hiding. Waiting for Elena to start her war and hoping we survive it. At least this way we choose the terms."

Nobody speaks. The air conditioning unit rattles. Someone's TV plays through the thin walls.

Isabella stirs on the bed. Her eyes open, already alert. She's been pretending to sleep.

"You're planning without me."

"You need rest." I move to the bed, sit on the edge. "The twins."

"Are fine." She sits up slowly, puts her hand on my arm. That touch always steadies something in me. "What are you planning?"

I tell her. Watch her face as she processes it. Fear first, then anger, then something like understanding.

"You want to surrender to the government."

"I want to stop this before it starts." I take her hand. "Elena's army, two hundred prisoners, all that rage released into cities. People die. Enhanced and baseline both. This war serves nobody except the people who want us extinct."

"So we trade ourselves for peace?"

"We trade information for cooperation." I squeeze her hand gently. "Prove we're not what they think we are."

"Walsh could be lying." Nico stops pacing long enough to look at Isabella. "Use us to find Elena, then lock us all up anyway."

"She could." I won't lie to them. "But staying hidden guarantees Elena attacks. This way we have a chance to stop it."

"What about my mother?" Isabella's voice is quiet. "If we're in government custody."

"First thing I negotiate." I promise her. "Your mother's safety. Treatment. Protection. Non-negotiable."

Isabella studies my face. She's reading me the way she reads everyone, looking for the truth underneath.

"You really believe Walsh is different."

"I believe some people still think enhanced individuals are people." I'm honest. Always honest with her. "Walsh is one of them. Maybe the only one with enough power to matter."

"Then we contact her." Isabella decides. "Together. All of us."

"Too risky." Marco shifts in his wheelchair. "If she betrays us."

"We're stronger together." Isabella's voice is steady. "That's what Vincent never understood. What Elena doesn't understand. Isolation isn't strength, it's just slow death."

She's right. We all know it.

"I'll make contact." I pull up Walsh's secured line. Number I've had memorized for six months. Insurance policy I hoped we'd never need. "Test her response first."

The call connects. Two rings. Professional voice, controlled.

"Walsh."

"Director Walsh. I have intelligence on an enhanced terrorist attack planned for tonight." I keep my voice steady. "Five government facilities. Coordinated strikes. Two hundred enhanced prisoners targeted for liberation."

Silence on the other end. Then, carefully, "Who is this?"

"Someone who wants to stop this war before it starts."

"Enhanced terrorist attacks." Walsh's tone shifts. Still skeptical but interested now. "That's very specific intelligence. How do you know?"

"Because the person planning it is my half-sister." Isabella leans close to the phone. "And she thinks she's following our dead father's orders."

The silence stretches longer this time.

"Isabella Hart." Walsh says it slowly, like she's tasting the words. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Makes negotiations complicated." Isabella's voice has an edge. "But we're offering full cooperation. Complete intelligence on Elena's attack in exchange for amnesty and support."

"Amnesty for four mafia heirs?" Walsh makes a sound that might be a laugh. "I don't have that authority."

"But you have resources to stop this attack." I'm careful here. "Evacuate facilities. Minimize casualties. Save lives."

"What do you want in return?"

"Witness protection for Sarah Hart. Isabella's mother." I start with what matters most. "Medical treatment. Safety."

"Done." Walsh doesn't hesitate. "What else?"

"Limited cooperation agreement. We help stop Elena's attack. Non-lethally. You advocate for enhanced rights legislation before Congress. Use this cooperation as evidence."

Walsh goes quiet. I can hear her breathing, thinking, weighing political costs against human ones.

"If I agree," she says finally, "and Isabella's pregnancy becomes public knowledge, extremists on both sides will target her. Enhanced supremacists wanting to study those twins. Government scientists wanting to prevent enhanced reproduction. Anti-enhanced terrorists wanting to eliminate the bloodline entirely."

My blood turns cold. "How do you know about the pregnancy?"

"I'm good at my job, Mr. Romano." Walsh's voice is professional again. "The question is whether you understand the risk you're taking."

Isabella's hand tightens on mine. Protective.

"We understand." I tell Walsh. "Do we have a deal?"

"Preliminary agreement. Send me the intelligence. I'll verify. If it checks out, we'll discuss terms."

I'm about to agree when Walsh's voice changes. Urgent.

"Wait. My intelligence division is flagging something." I hear computer keys clicking fast. "Elena's communications. The facilities you mentioned. They're decoys."

Ice spreads through my chest. "What?"

"Elena's real target isn't government facilities." Walsh is reading fast now. "It's Chicago Memorial Hospital. Research wing. Where Dr. Sarah Hart works."

Isabella goes white beside me.

"Elena's planning to capture Sarah Hart." Walsh continues. "Use her genetic research to replicate Isabella's amplification process in her entire army."

"When?" I'm already moving. Grabbing keys. Weapons.

"The attack begins in three hours."