Theo stood in the operations center, watching the surveillance feeds flicker back to life one by one. The generator had been restored. Someone was tampering with the internal systems. But instead of rage, Theo felt something worse:
Curiosity.
He tapped the console. Camera 12 - offline. Camera 8 - static. But Camera 4...
There she was.
Lena.
Standing beside Mikael.
Working together.
His sister. His mirror.
His traitor.
He didn't move for several seconds. Then he leaned in, whispered to himself:
"I taught you everything… and now you're going to teach me how far you'll go."
---
Below, in the shadows of the surgical wing…
Lena crept through the corridor with Mikael behind her, his gun low. They had the blueprints now. Every guard's rotation. Every locked door. Every hidden tunnel.
Rachel's signal had been sent - brief, encrypted - but enough.
Now came the second phase.
They had a plan: bypass the hostages on Level Three, get to the comm tower above the library annex, and trigger the full security override from the old mainframe.
But first - Dominic.
"I want to be the one to end him," Lena said.
Mikael smirked. "That's poetic, but dangerous."
"I've been in danger since I was born."
---
Elsewhere…
Dr. Park was building a bomb.
Not a massive one. Not flashy. But precise.
She'd rigged it from old defibrillator batteries, ether from a chemistry lab, and pressure triggers taken from the disabled hallway alarms. It would be enough to blow a hole through the reinforced emergency corridor.
She folded a note into the pocket of a dead guard's jacket:
> "I have twenty minutes. After that, get everyone out. - A.P."
Then she disappeared into the tunnel again.
---
Dominic was waiting.
He stood in the lecture theatre - the largest space on campus - now converted into a crude command post with maps, hostage profiles, and laptops lining the old rows.
He knew someone was coming. He could feel it.
And he was right.
The double doors opened.
Lena stepped in.
Alone.
Dominic raised his rifle. "You've got balls, girl."
"I have nothing," she replied, calm. "That's what makes me dangerous."
He laughed. "You think you scare me?"
"No. But I think you'll hesitate."
She reached into her coat.
Dominic fired.
But she was faster.
She threw a scalpel.
It hit his eye.
He screamed, firing blindly as she ducked and rolled.
Mikael appeared behind him - two shots to the leg.
Dominic crumpled, blood pooling.
"Do it," Mikael said.
But Lena was already there, kneeling beside Dominic, her fingers pressed to his throat. Not checking a pulse - feeling the weakness. The fallibility.
She leaned close and whispered, "You took my peace. So I'll take yours."
Then she stabbed him - once - right in the carotid.
Dominic gurgled.
Then silence.
---
Theo watched it all.
Every frame.
He saw the scalpel.
The look in her eyes.
He didn't feel betrayed anymore.
He felt...
Proud.
---
In the tunnels, Adrienne Park lit the fuse.
The blast rocked the lower levels, creating an exit route through the security corridor. Hostages began to escape in chaos - running into arms of SWAT teams flooding in.
Gunfire cracked across the south halls.
A war had started.
But it was almost over.
---
Theo stood alone again.
The university burned beneath him.
And now, he was ready.
He turned from the monitors and said to no one:
"Let the final cut begin."