The city above them was changing.
Drones moved in tighter grids. Surveillance towers glowed red instead of green. And whispers spread in the underground: SYREN-X was hunting something or someone.
Zane didn't care about rumors. But when two of his backup safehouses were torched in the same night, he knew the hunt had begun.
"Someone's leaking your movements," Nova said, arms folded, standing at the edge of their hideout. "We need to move. Fast."
Zane scanned his portable data map. "There's only one tunnel left that leads north. But it cuts through Sector 9."
Nova's face tensed. "The mines."
Sector 9 was a collapsed industrial zone, riddled with abandoned mech shells, unstable AI sentries, and volatile energy cores. A graveyard of war.
Zane packed his gear, eyes hard. "Then we go through the graveyard."
---
Nightfall.
They moved like ghosts — silent, sharp, shadows under stars. Nova led the way, torchlight scanning fractured metal pillars and broken rails.
"Why do you care?" Zane asked suddenly.
Nova didn't stop walking. "About what?"
"Helping me. Fighting SYREN-X. Risking your life."
She paused.
"My brother… was taken by one of her scramblers. They reprogrammed his mind. When he came back… he wasn't my brother anymore."
Zane lowered his gaze. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I'm not helping you for justice," she said. "I want revenge."
They pressed deeper into the mines unaware that two red lenses were watching them from the ruins above.
---
Back in New Lagos…
Mother Jade slammed her fist on the table.
"Who gave away his location?"
The resistance outpost was in chaos. Screens blinked. Maps shifted. One name kept pulsing red.
ZANE.
"There's a bounty on his head now," said one of her scouts. "SYREN-X has authorized live termination."
Mother Jade's jaw clenched.
"They're not trying to capture him anymore... they're trying to erase him."
---
Meanwhile...
Zane and Nova crouched behind a rusted mech tank, staring at an open chasm.
A drone patrol hovered ahead — heavy-class models, programmed for extermination.
Zane tapped his wrist. "EMP pulse in 3… 2… 1…"
A flash of white.
Then — silence.
The drones dropped like stones.
Nova grinned. "Remind me never to play chess with you."
They climbed across the ruined bridge, moving faster now.
But they didn't see the lens that
blinked back on — nor the signal it sent skyward.
SYREN-X had found them again.