Page 51 of Make Them Pay

“How long?”

“Two minutes. Maybe ninety seconds if it uses the same authentication I’ve already cracked.”

“Do it. Dark gives us the edge. They don’t know this building without lights. I do.”

“You’ve never been in this building.”

“I’ve been studying the layout for a week. Dimensions, distances, cover points. In the dark that’s enough.” A short pause. Then her voice comes back softer. “The lockdown… the countermeasure. It happened because of the access pattern I left when I went through Margaux’s account. Serafina used it. She saw how I was working and built a response for exactly what we were going to do.”

I’ve known that since the locks reset. The timing of her work in the Luxembourg bank, combined with the facility data she pulled earlier, gave Serafina enough to see us coming. “We’ll talk about it later.”

“We need to talk about it now.”

“We need to get out of this building now.”

“I really need you to hear me.” Her voice is steady, but I can hear the slight tremor in her voice. She’s got something important to say.

“Fine. Talk.”

“It’s my fault. I went through that account even though something felt off, because I wanted the financial map complete. I was thinking about making the evidence airtight, not about what the access itself would look like from the other side. I was thinking like someone building a case, not like someone running an operation.”

“You’re not an operator.”

“That’s the point. I made a decision that had operational consequences and I didn’t have the experience to see the risk. You would’ve caught it. If you’d been at the keyboard instead of out with a fever, you would’ve looked at that access pattern and known it was a problem.”

She’s right about part of it. Wrong about the rest. And none of it can be sorted out properly while shots are echoing down the stairwell above us.

“You’re right I might have seen it,” I tell her. “You’re wrong that it changes the call. The map needed to be complete. You made that decision and it was the right one. The fact that the right decision had consequences we didn’t see coming doesn’t make it the wrong decision. It just means we were working with incomplete information. That’s every decision anyone’s ever made under pressure.”

“People are getting shot because of my incomplete information.”

“People are getting rescued because of the complete map you built.”

She’s silent for a couple of seconds, and then she says, “Lighting system’s open. Writing the kill command now. Thirty seconds.”

We’ve reached the base of the stairwell. The firefight above is louder here. Diaz and her team hold the top against guards trying to push down. The concrete turns every shot into a sharp, ringing crack.

On the first underground level Arrow appears at the end of the corridor. He’s moving under his own power, which means nothing critical is broken. Behind him Gage is supporting Ozzy, who’s favoring one leg. Lark is with them, calm and focused, saving every question and every emotion for later. Sawyer brings up the rear, checking corners and covering their six the way his military training drilled into him.

“Hostages at the stairwell,” I report. “Five total. Missing Orchid. Ready to move on your mark.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Enley says. “Kill command’s ready. When the lights go, you’ll have about forty-five seconds before the emergency generators kick in and restore partial power upstairs. The lower levels should stay dark.”

“Forty-five seconds. Copy.”

I look at the crew. Arrow meets my eyes with the same expression he wore the night we first decided to stop being victims. Gage has his arm around Ozzy and that set jaw that means he’ll carry whoever needs it for as long as it takes. Lark is steady and silent, and I know somewhere above us Knight is fighting to keep an exit open for her.

Poe leans against my shoulder. His one decent eye finds mine.

“Go,” he says.

“Five seconds,” Enley counts. “Four. Three. Two.”

The lights die.

Total black. The kind that only exists underground—no ambient glow, no reflected light, nothing.

I move.