Eleanor stood in the chaos.

What are you doing inside the walls, and how did you even get in? My eyes stayed locked on hers, the crowd swirling and shoving around her like she wasn’t even there, an island of perfect stillness amid the frenzy.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" Mercury’s voice cut through. "Close the fucking door."

I blinked once, and Eleanor was gone. Nowhere in sight. I yanked the door shut with a heavy click. Mercury already had us rolling toward the gate. May and Harmione had pulled ahead.

Was that real, or did I imagine her? I couldn’t say.

My mind was still elsewhere, eyes scanning the crowd through the rear window, when Mercury slammed the brakes. The sudden jolt snapped my head forward.

"Fuck," she said, knuckles white on the wheel. "They’ve sealed us in."

The gate was sliding shut with a low metallic rumble. CGI agents had thrown up a blockade—four of them standing firm in the fading golden light, two unfamiliar robots positioned with them, their sleek metal frames gleaming under the first glow of the streetlights. Nobody was leaving. Which meant every ability user at this party was about to be rounded up. It was only a matter of time.

"This is CGI," Mercury said, staring at the armed figures ahead, her jaw clenched tight.

"Yeah," I said. "Let me handle it."

"You’d better. We would’ve been through already." Her fingers drummed restlessly on the wheel. "May and Harmione already got out."

I stepped out of the car. Four agents at the gate, two robots flanking them—machines I hadn’t seen before, joints humming faintly. No ability user was slipping through this checkpoint by accident.

I walked straight up.

"Open the gate," I said. "We need to leave."

Three men, one woman. New faces. CGI ran deep.

"Sorry, who are you?" one of the men asked, stepping forward, hand resting near his sidearm.

I pulled my badge and handed it over. "Agent. One of the six outsiders."

"Abram," he read off the card. "I’m sorry. An order’s an order. Nobody’s leaving."

"Lord Bala needs me right now," I said, holding his gaze steady.

"I’m not running this operation."

"Then who is?" I asked, but he was already reaching for his comms.

The woman stepped up behind him and murmured something close to his ear. He nodded once.

"Okay, Abram," he said. "You’re clear."

I got back in. The gate opened with a mechanical groan, and Mercury pulled us through without hesitation.

"Why were they stalling you?" she asked once we hit the open street, accelerating smoothly as the compound fell behind.

Heavy trucks lined the road outside, confirming what I already suspected. CGI hadn’t come to monitor the ability users. They’d come to collect them.

"The whole place is under lockdown," I said.

"What the fuck does CGI want with ability users this time?" Mercury’s grip tightened on the wheel. "Drain them for the life layer by force?" The sharp edge in her voice said everything about how she felt about CGI, even after she’d once told me it used to be her dream job.

"I don’t think it’s that," I said. "I think this is worse."

"Worse?" Mercury let out a short, humorless laugh, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel until the leather creaked. "You clearly don’t know shit about CGI. They’ve done worse than this. Some of these kids could end up dead."

I let her run with it, saying nothing, my gaze fixed on the road ahead where the late-afternoon sun stretched long, distorted shadows across the pavement.

"But I think rich parents already knew," I said, thinking back to Harmione’s urgent call. Mrs. Rivers. CGI kept tight relationships with the powerful families.

"Yeah," Mercury said. "That’s why Harmione got her warning early. No rich kid’s getting caught in the middle of this mess."

A convoy of armored vehicles roared past us in the opposite lane, heavy frames rumbling the asphalt beneath our tires. Their headlights sliced sharp beams through the golden evening light as they headed back toward the way we’d come.

"That CGI too?" I asked, watching their taillights shrink in the side mirror.

"No." Mercury kept her eyes locked forward. "Those are the same kind of cars we ran into outside the capital. Guardian vehicles."

"That convoy looks ready for war," I said, noting the tight formation, soldiers visible through the reinforced windows, weapons held at the ready.

"Definitely," Mercury said. "Feels like a civil war’s about to break out inside these walls."

"What did Sinn actually tell you?"

"Just that I needed to report for duty." She turned onto the main road, the first city lights flickering on around us as daylight slowly bled away.

Mercury worked under the Guardians, the army General Sinn commanded. The Guardians answered to CGI, the government that ran everything behind these walls.

We drove deeper into the capital. The streets sat eerily empty, armored vehicles parked at nearly every corner, their dark silhouettes looming under the growing glow of streetlights. Mercury pulled up beside where we’d left my car. A pile of questions still had no answers, and the system had gone quiet too, leaving me to sit with everything that had stacked up in the last hour.

"Take care," Mercury said as I stepped out, her hand lingering on the gear shift.

"You too," I said. "We’ll catch up soon."

She offered a small smile and pulled away, taillights fading down the quiet street. My car sat exactly where we’d left it, the metal still warm from the day’s heat.

I got in the car and started it. The engine rumbled to life as I pulled into the early evening traffic, dusk settling in slow around the buildings, painting the sky in deep oranges and purples.

The CGI headquarters came into view, lit up brighter than I’d ever seen it, every window glowing white against the fading light. I didn’t drive straight in. I pulled over to the curb instead and killed the engine. The street outside was empty. A heavy silence hung over the place that didn’t fit at all—no guards stationed at the entrance, no silhouettes moving behind the glass doors, distant hum of the city in the background.

I tapped my coms watch. I needed to know what I was walking into before I walked into it.

Six missed calls. Three from Bala. Three from Mary Stam.

One unread message sat on top, from Bala.

Don’t come near CGI. Stay wherever you are.

I stared at it, the glowing text reflecting faintly on the windshield.

Holy shit. I’m already near.