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Kat’s fingers slipped against the wet rock face, her grip failing for a terrifying heartbeat before finding purchase.

The limestone was greasy with rain and spray from the churning sea sixty feet below.

Her shoulders screamed as she hauled herself another foot up, muscles trembling from the relentless climb.

The wind howled across the cliff face, driving sheets of rain sideways into her eyes. Each gust threatened to tear her from the rock. Her clothes were waterlogged, adding twenty pounds to her frame. Water streamed down her face, blurring her vision as she searched for the next handhold.

Above, Leo’s voice cut through the storm. “Three feet, Kat. You’ve got this.”

Have I?

Her legs burned, her fingers cramped into numb claws. The climbing harness cut into her hips with each upward movement. Rain filled her mouth when she tried to breathe, forcing her to turn her head and spit.

She let her head rest against the rock, gathering herself. Eldridge and Korolov would not win.

One more pull.

She reached for the edge of the rocky overhang.

Leo’s hand clamped onto her forearm, then he grabbed the harness on her hips, hauling her up and over the final lip.

She collapsed onto him, chest heaving.

“You’re okay.” Leo’s hands steadied her, one brushing wet hair from her cheek. “You made it.”

She sagged against him, clutching his harness, drawing strength from the solidity of his body.

Breathe. Her heart galloped.

She pushed off him to her knees, wiping water from her eyes. Most of the rest of the team was already assembled under a natural rock shelter ten feet away.

She checked over her shoulder. Zak’s breathing was harsh as he pulled himself over the edge. Muscles bunched in his jaw. “Fuck,” he gasped, rolling onto his back. “Next time we’re taking the helicopter.”

The adrenaline that had carried her up the cliff face faded, exposing the sharp ache of overused muscles.

But as she flexed her fingers, working feeling back into the numb tips, brute will overrode the fatigue.

Korolov and maybe Eldridge were here, along with technology that could reshape the world.

The exhaustion didn’t disappear, but it no longer mattered.

Underneath the physical pain, something stirred.

A cold, focused calm she hadn’t experienced in weeks.

Soon she would have answers. Soon she would end this nightmare and clear her name.

The rain continued to lash, but she barely noticed it now. Her entire focus had narrowed to the mission ahead.

Leo’s hand found her shoulder, heavy and solid.

She turned into it, letting herself feel it—for one breath.

“How are you feeling?”

“Ready,” she said, and meant it.

The wind still howled, but up here, the world had narrowed. Just them, the mission, and the secrets buried in the rock beneath their feet. She joined him under the rocky overhang with the others. Water dripped onto the back of her neck. She wiped it away. Let it come. Nothing could shake her now.

Gage met her eyes. You okay?

She nodded and shot him a smile.

Eli had a tablet powered up, satellite imagery of the compound glowing on the screen.

A few scattered surface buildings were window dressing. Underneath was an underground complex carved directly into the limestone cliff. Topped with a massive radio satellite tower, its steel framework sprouting skyward from the rocky ground.

Fox traced the outline on the tablet with his finger. “Three levels deep, as we suspected from our initial surveys.”

Kat studied the schematic. The satellite tower dominated the upper section, its dish and transmission arrays pointing out toward the open ocean. Power cables and cooling systems snaked down through the rock to the buried laboratory levels below.

“How many people?” Leo asked.

“Thermal imaging shows approximately fifty bodies moving through the complex.” Eli’s voice was barely audible above the rain.

Leo dropped to his knees beside his brother. “Guard posts?”

“Four at the main entrance in this small building here, maybe fifteen more patrolling the access tunnels. The satellite array is automated.”

Fox tapped the screen. “The transmission arrays are pointed at specific coordinates across Southeast Asia. They’re ready to transmit.”

Kat pushed her sleeve off her watch, her stomach rolling with acid. “In less than three hours.”

“Let’s make those hours count.” Leo’s mouth thinned to a dark line. “Abe, Griff, Eli, Landon—sat tower’s yours. Locate and neutralize the transmission node. Fast and clean before they can go live.”

“Kat, Zak, Fox. You’re with me. We breach the main entrance, go deep, and extract whatever intel we can before this place goes up in smoke. The lab levels are our priority.”

Her heart settled into a metronome as her training locked in. No fear now—just the mission.

They split into their teams. Kat checked her mag, confirmed a round was chambered, and dropped her NVGs. The world turned green.

“Comms check,” Leo’s voice crackled in her earpiece.

“Clear,” she replied.

They broke from cover and fanned out. Kat’s boots found dark basalt—surprisingly quiet underfoot. Her gun was up, every nerve humming.

She slotted in behind Zak and Leo, Fox ghosting her six. In her earpiece, the second team advanced in measured breaths and muted footfalls.

Abe, Griff, Eli. Gage.

Her brother’s voice clipped through comms. “Approaching satellite tower.” Smooth, unhurried, the same tone he’d used to bully her through childhood obstacle courses.

He’d folded into the Guardsmen’s rhythm as if he’d been part of them for years—even if his hackles rose whenever Leo drifted too close.

Kat forced the thought aside, sweeping her sector. Wind tugged at her sleeve.

Focus, Kat. Eyes on the approach. Keep Gage alive by getting this job done.

A grunt. Two muffled thwacks of a suppressed rifle—then silence.

“Two sentries down at the satellite tower,” Eli’s voice came through the static. “Moving in to take control of the remaining sentries.”

“Contact at the main entrance,” Abe reported. “Four tangos neutralized. You’re clear to breach.”

Leo’s hand touched her shoulder. The signal to move.

They approached a squat breeze-block building.

Up close, moss streaked the walls. Creeper plants dangled from every surface.

Leo signaled a halt.

Kat crouched behind a jut of rock, scanning the entrance. No movement inside. No sign of life. But that meant nothing. If this place was what they thought it was, it wouldn’t advertise its secrets on the doorstep.

A hand signal from Leo, and Fox pushed aside a hanging vine exposing the door. The door was worn, paint peeling, but the padlock gleamed.

Fox reached into his pack and pulled out bolt cutters. With a flex of his arms, the lock snapped clean off.

Leo motioned again, and Zak slipped forward, low and quick. He flattened against the frame and angled a mirror around the door’s edge.

“Clear.” He indicated for them to follow as he slipped inside.

Kat tracked Leo through the threshold, sweeping left.

The interior smelled of oil and old metal, the air stale and oddly dry despite the weather. Blank walls, a stripped-down table, a few rusting filing cabinets shoved to one side like afterthoughts.

The concrete was worn smooth. Recent traffic.

“Look at this,” Zak ran two fingers across the floor.

Scuff marks.

A faint semi-circle against the far wall—like something had moved there—a door hidden behind the seamless concrete? A lie disguised as emptiness.

Kat edged closer—her fingers found a seam. She pressed, and a section retracted exposing a digital keypad.

Zak was already kneeling beside her, pulling tools from a pouch on his belt. “Let’s see what they’re hiding.”

Two electrodes, clipped. His digital bypass scrolled through passcodes.

Beep, click, click.

Metal locks thudded open.

“Abracadabra.” He grinned as he boosted to his feet, weapon raised.

Kat held her breath, but the door didn’t open.

Leo reached forward, his gloved hand pressed to the surface. He glanced back, eyes meeting each of theirs in turn.

Ready?

She gave a single nod, gun raised, shoulders braced.

Leo pushed and the door spun on a central pivot—like a bank vault—grinding open with a seismic groan. A rush of cold air curled from the dark beyond, metallic and sterile.

But not silence—there was a hum, deep and mechanical, like something vast breathing in the island’s belly.

Leo moved first.

Kat shadowed him, sweeping left. Zak angled right. Fox covered the rear.

No shouting. No shots.

Just the rasp of her breath and the soft shush of boots on smooth floor in the sterile tunnel.

“All clear,” Leo murmured.

Fox exhaled behind her. “Creepy as hell.”

Leo nodded toward the corridor stretching out beyond them. “No time for creepy. Stack up.”

A burst of static buzzed above them. Then a voice—male, British. Almost bored. “Attention all personnel. Broadcast initiation in thirty minutes. All research teams to observation stations.”

Kat’s head jerked.

No. We’re supposed to have three hours.

Leo looked over his shoulder. “They moved up the timeline.”

Zak swore under his breath. “They know we’re here.”

Kat’s heart slammed back into gear.

Thirty minutes.

That was all they had to shut Nightshade down.

The race was on.