120

120
The SUV’s headlights cut out two blocks from the facility. They drove the last stretch in total darkness, guided only by Ryan’s thermal scope and Malik’s unerring hands on the wheel. Malik parked between two abandoned cargo containers, the building in the near distance, a shadowy cube of concrete and steel, indifferent and ominous under the low fog.

Inside the SUV, no one moved.

Katherine’s heart thudded so loud she swore they’d hear it across the street. Her gloved hands were clenched tightly in her lap. Every breath felt like a countdown.

“Ready?” Ryan whispered.

Malik checked the time. 1:29:03.

Devon turned to Katherine, voice low but steady. “Once we’re in, stay close to me. Don’t stray, no matter what you hear or see.”

She nodded, her jaw set even though her pulse trembled. “Let’s bring him home.”

Malik popped the back door. Cold night air rushed in. The four of them slipped out silently, dressed in tactical black with their masks. No lights. No words. Just motion.

They moved low across the cracked pavement, cutting toward the chain-link perimeter fence. The biotech facility loomed up ahead, sterile and silent, a façade for the secret beneath.

120

Ryan raised his wrist and whispered into his comms. “Carolina. We’re in position.”

Carolina’s voice crackled through their earpieces. “Loop begins in ten seconds… Hold… Now.”

A soft click in their ears.

Then stillness.

Even from this distance, Katherine could feel it, a glitch in the air, like something had been paused inside the building. She didn’t know how their hacker managed it, but somehow the cameras were blind. They had exactly thirty minutes.

“Go,” Ryan ordered.

Malik was first. The ex-FBI agent scaled the chain-link fence like a shadow. Katherine watched his muscles work in silence as he reached the top, clipped the wires, and rolled over with feline precision. Ryan went next, and then Devon helped Katherine, boosting her gently before swinging over himself.

Her landing was awkward, but Ryan steadied her silently before they slipped toward the building’s northeast freight entrance.

“Watch the corner,” Devon whispered.

They pressed themselves against the wall, sliding along until they reached the designated blind spot. Malik used a specialized electronic lockpick tool, silent and efficient. In under six seconds, the loading bay clicked open.

They were in.

1:31 a.m.

The interior was even colder than the outside. Dim emergency lights buzzed overhead, leaving long shadows across metallic floors. The place looked nothing like a hospital. It looked like a bunker. A science prison.

“Split,” Ryan ordered. “Devon, Katherine, you go east. Holding cells and medical labs are in that wing. Malik and I will clear west and secure your exit path.”

Devon took Katherine’s hand without thinking. She didn’t protest.

Carolina’s voice piped through again. “GPS tracker on Kingsley’s ankle monitor pings from Level B Room 4B. East corridor, second sublevel. Take the stairs past the autoclave wing.”

They moved fast, boots soft against the linoleum. Katherine kept close to Devon’s side, every nerve lit like a live wire. Through a panel window, they passed what looked like a sterilization lab. Cold tanks, surgical trays. Glass cabinets filled with injectables.

Her stomach turned.

They reached the stairwell and slipped downward.

Two flights. One final corridor. Carolina’s voice guided them.

1:38 a.m.

“Ten minutes in,” Carolina said. “No motion from the hallway cameras. You’re doing good.”

“Got it,” Devon said. “Approaching 4B.”

The hallway felt like a grave.

Cold. Silent. Sterile. As if time had been vacuum-sealed behind each heavy gray door.

Katherine stared at the doors they passed: 1 B. 2B. 3B…

Then they stopped.

4B.

They turned and saw Ryan and Malik heading toward them from the opposite direction.

Ryan slowed his pace and raised his left hand. “There,” he whispered, motioning to the door.

It didn’t look like the others. This one was built differently, thicker, reinforced steel, smooth with no visible keyhole or keypad. Instead, a palm-sized biometric panel pulsed faint blue to the left of the frame.

“This is it,” Malik muttered, adjusting the strap of his backpack. “4B. Their most secure room.”

Katherine reached out and touched the door with trembling fingers. It was ice cold. Her stomach twisted with dread.

“This room’s fully insulated,” Devon said quietly behind her. “No cameras. No signals. No windows. Designed to isolate high-value subjects.”

“And Kingsley’s the most high-value person here,” Ryan added grimly.

Malik crouched beside the biometric scanner and pulled out a compact toolkit. “Give me ten seconds.”

Katherine backed away, watching anxiously as he flicked open a small device. It had a holographic grid that mirrored the biometric pad’s calibration. Malik tapped a few codes, syncing them with the facility’s authentication protocol the hacker had fed them.

The panel blinked red… then yellow… then green.

A soft mechanical click echoed like thunder in the stillness.

Ryan gently pulled the door open.

The hinges released with a muffled hiss of air, an airlock seal giving way.

What they saw inside made Katherine freeze.

Kingsley.

He was sitting on the edge of a narrow bed, hunched over, his hands clasped together in his lap. He wore a gray monitoring suit with faint biometric wires trailing from his wrists to a disconnected panel on the wall. There were bruises on his temple and dark shadows beneath his eyes.

He looked gaunt. Miserable. Lost in a fog of silent despair.

But he was alive.

And as soon as Katherine saw him, she broke.

“Kingsley!” she gasped, rushing forward without hesitation.

His head snapped up, eyes blinking against the sudden movement, and before he could even stand fully, Katherine crashed into him, throwing her arms around his neck.

He caught her out of instinct, stumbling slightly, before realization dawned in his eyes. His arms wrapped around her tightly, as if anchoring himself back into reality.

“Katherine?” he whispered. “You are awake, you are already,” he said with tears in his eyes.

Devon moved in next, breath catching in his chest. “Kingsley. Oh my God. Thank God you’re okay.”

Kingsley looked over Katherine’s shoulder and met Devon’s eyes. Disbelief surged in his face. “Devon? What the hell are you doing here? What are you guys… how did you even find me?”

Katherine pulled back just enough to look at his face. Her eyes were glossy with tears, her smile trembling with raw relief.

He remembers me.

He knows who I am.

I got to him in time. Before they took everything.

Devon stepped closer, urgency in his voice. “We came to save you, man. You were missing for weeks, held here. There’s no time to explain it all right now. We only have eight minutes left before the surveillance loop resets.”

Ryan entered, weapon still drawn as he scanned the corners of the room.

“Area’s clear. Malik, prep for evac.”

“We’ll explain everything on the way,” Devon said, already moving toward him. “But right now, we need to move.”

Katherine grabbed Kingsley’s hand and squeezed. “Can you walk? Are you okay?”

He looked down at himself. “Yeah… I think so. I’m just… weak.”

Malik was already moving toward the door, motioning for them to follow. “We’ve got a clean path out. No hostilities so far, but if we don’t move now…”

“Let’s go,” Devon said sharply. “Katherine, help him.”

She looped her arm around Kingsley’s waist as he slowly stood, wincing slightly. “I’ve got him,” she said, steady and focused. “Let’s get out of here.”

Together, they left the room behind, the sterile gray box where Kingsley had almost been erased, and stepped into the corridor like ghosts.

The door was sealed shut behind them.

And the clock kept ticking.

Seven minutes left.

The corridor echoed with each footfall.

For one beautiful second, everything had felt almost under control. Katherine still had Kingsley’s hand. Devon’s focus was razor-sharp. Ryan and Malik flanked them like a precision unit.

But then…

Footsteps.

Not theirs.

Heavy. Rushing. From the stairwell.

“Move.” Malik’s voice snapped through the comms, clipped and cold. “Someone’s coming. They doubled back. We’ve got your path cleared, but you need to go. Now.”

Devon didn’t hesitate.

Without a word, he stepped forward and scooped Kingsley into his arms, bridal style, quick, strong, and efficient. Kingsley was too disoriented to argue. His body folded into Devon’s grip like he’d done this a thousand times.

Katherine ran close, hand on Kingsley’s arm, keeping pace. Malik and Ryan took point, weapons drawn, moving like panthers, silent and lethal.

B14… B13… B12…

The metallic numbers above each hallway door blurred as they raced past. The hall was now laced with tension, shadows stretching long from the overhead emergency lights.

Behind them, somewhere deep inside the building, an alarm panel flickered red once, like the flicker of an eyelid.

Then again.

Katherine’s pulse spiked. “Did they see us?!”

“No,” came Carolina’s voice over the comm. Her tone was steely, fingers no doubt flying over a keyboard back in Manhattan. “The hacker warned me, it’s a ping fluctuation. Static loop stuttered. It bought us a flicker of detection.”

“Translation,” Devon barked, “how much time?”

“Five minutes!” Carolina called back. “He can only hold the loop for five more. But not a second longer. After that, we’re blind and they’re live.”

“Copy,” Devon said. His eyes flicked to Malik. “Exit?”

“Coming up.”

They hit the end of the corridor, pivoted left, and stormed up the stairwell. The cold metal steps groaned under their feet.

Up. Up. Don’t stop.

At the top of the stairs, the freight entrance was already unlocked. Ryan had prepared it in advance. He burst through first, checked for hostiles, then waved them out.

“Clear! Move!”

They poured into the open air, lungs sucking in the frigid Staten Island night. The blast of wind hit Katherine like a slap, but she didn’t care. Kingsley was in her sight.

The SUV waited just outside the gated perimeter, engine running, exhaust steaming like a dragon’s breath into the dark.

Malik reached it first, throwing open the rear door. Devon gently slid Kingsley inside, placing him like he were made of porcelain. His legs trembled, but he gave Katherine a half-smile, eyes dazed but focused on her.

Katherine climbed in right after, grabbing Kingsley’s hand with both of hers, clinging like she’d never let go again.

Malik rounded to the driver’s side. Ryan jumped in the front seat, scanning the perimeter with practiced eyes.

And then the building behind them lit up.

SIRENS.

Real, shrieking, angry sirens now howling across the complex.

They’d been found.

Malik didn’t wait.

The SUV peeled off, tires screaming across the asphalt, dirt kicking up in a violent spray as they tore away from the biotech facility and back toward the mainland.

Inside the SUV, there was silence.

The kind of silence only relief could breed.

Devon, breathless and sweating, turned in his seat. “You okay, man?”

Kingsley gave a half-nod. “Yeah… I think so. I… I don’t know what’s going on, but… thank you.”

Katherine squeezed his hand again. “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”

He looked at her, searching her face. And in his tired eyes, despite the disorientation and pain, was something unmistakable.

Recognition.

Love.

He remembered her.

Katherine exhaled shakily. Her fingers trembled, but this time from release, not fear.

They had made it out.

But as the institute shrank into the night behind them, she knew one truth burned brighter than anything.

Beth wouldn’t stop.

She had gone too far.

Erasing memories. Creating body doubles. Planning a life with a counterfeit.

And they had just declared war by taking Kingsley.

Kingsley had been saved.

But the war with Beth?

It was only just beginning.