The tunnel breathed heat.
Not from machines—from power. Raw. Hidden. Humming beneath the surface of Sector 12 like a sleeping giant.
Riven stood at its mouth, cloak off, suit active. The Hunter Program's systems pulsed quiet blue across his back.
"No more watching.""I need answers."
He stepped inside.
Old concrete. Reinforced steel. This wasn't part of the public metro. This was deep-core architecture—military-grade. Forgotten by most, but not by GhostNet.
Not by him.
Every twenty meters, he dropped a micro-drone. Mapping. Scanning.
The further he went, the colder it got. Like the walls themselves didn't want him there.
Then—
[Signal Interference Detected]
"Of course."
He moved faster.
Then he saw it: a blast door. Twelve inches thick. Old biometric panel. Half the lights still blinking.
And painted just above it, faded in red:
PROJECT LAZARUS: ACCESS RESTRICTED
"Found you."
Riven reached into the gauntlet, activated a bypass spike. The wall flickered—then whirred.
The door hissed open.
And behind it—
A massive chamber.
Rows of pods. Dark. Silent. But not empty.
Figures floated inside. Human shapes. Hooked to wires. Dripping with fluid.
Suspended.
Alive.
But asleep.
"What the hell is this…?"
He stepped closer to the nearest pod.
And froze.
The face inside?
Looked exactly like his.