Page 85 of Cold Ignition

Gunfire erupted. Louder now. Closer.

The air filled with it—sharp cracks, ricochets, the bite of metal and concrete splintering under impact. Keanu returned fire in controlled bursts, tracking movement, adjusting angles, never staying in one place long enough to be pinned.

Rangi didn’t hold position. Of course he didn’t. He pushed forward into it, closing distance again, breaking their formation with sheer force, turning their numbers against them.

“Rangi—fall back,” Keanu snapped.

“Working on it,” Rangi shot back, already moving, dragging one man down as he shifted, using him as cover before dropping him and rolling clear.

Alexios adjusted around them, picking off threats that got too close, covering gaps before they opened, his movements calm even as the space descended into chaos.

“Flank right,” he said.

Keanu moved. No hesitation. He cut across the bay, using the vehicles for cover, coming up on their side just as they shifted to compensate for Rangi’s advance.

“Push!” Kael ordered.

They did. Hard. Fast. Overwhelming. The fight broke in under thirty seconds after that. What was left of their resistance scattered—some dropping weapons, others trying to run.

Keanu lowered his weapon slightly, scanning one last time before stepping back toward the drivers. Rangi was already there, one arm braced around a man who could barely stand, hauling him toward the exit.

Alexios moved beside him, checking each one quickly, efficiently, ensuring they were stable enough to move.

“All alive,” Alexios said.

Keanu exhaled slowly. “Extraction?”

“En route,” Luca replied. “Two minutes.”

Kael stepped into the center of the space, gaze sweeping over the aftermath.

“Grab everything,” he said. “Data, devices, anything that links this place to the network.”

Drew was already moving. Victor too.

Keanu turned once more, taking in the room—the vehicles, the setup, the system laid out in pieces around them. Crucible. This was one node. One piece of something much bigger.

He glanced at Rangi. At Alexios. At the men, they had just pulled back from the edge of disappearing. And felt it settle in his chest.

They had done what they had set out to do.

Chapter Fifteen

Luca didn’t look up when they came in. He was already three layers deep in the data.

The command center had shifted again—back into that quiet hum of controlled intensity, screens alive, feeds running, information stacking faster than most people could process it. But for Luca, this was the cleanest part of it.

This was where chaos turned into answers.

Or at least—patterns.

His fingers moved across the console with practiced ease, pulling in everything they’d extracted from the facility—drives, comms logs, route trackers, biometric records—layering them over what they already had.

Crucible. It was bigger than it had looked, but that wasn’t what had his attention tightening. It was the edges of it. The parts that didn’t belong.

“Talk to me,” Kael said from behind him.

Luca didn’t turn. “I’m working.”