The warehouse stank of mildew and burnt wiring.
Kat crouched in the rafters, boots perched on a rusted metal beam as her eyes tracked the movement below. There were three of them—humans, definitely. One at a terminal, another pacing with a comm in his hand, the third unpacking what looked like an illegal server farm.
She scanned the setup with narrowed eyes. Thermal suppression panels. Unregistered transmitters. A portable AI-assisted data miner.
"Government-adjacent," she whispered to herself. "Or playing dress-up."
Then she saw it.
A Brotherhood file.
Encrypted but recognizable—Brotherhood system headers on the upper right corner of the screen.
Her stomach dropped.
They had gotten in.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a small EMP puck—nonlethal, short-range. Enough to fry the active system and stall them long enough for her to steal the drives.
The plan was simple: Drop in, blackout the grid, grab what she could, get out.
Except...
She didn't hear him until he was behind her.
"You ever think about not running off alone?" came Vishous's low voice.
She whipped around so fast she nearly lost her balance. "Jesus—are you stalking me?"
"I prefer tracking. You made it easy. Rookie mistake leaving that partial camera loop on your floor."
Kat gritted her teeth. "You're unbelievable."
"You're impulsive."
"You're controlling."
"You're reckless."
"You're in my way," she snapped and turned back toward the terminal below.
"You go down there alone, you're going to get caught."
"I've been doing this since you were jerking off with a flip phone."
V chuckled. "Cute. You don't know what you're walking into."
"Neither do you. So how about you shut up, stay in your vampire bat-signal trench coat, and let me do my job."
She slid silently down the steel support, landing in a crouch behind an old oil drum. V followed, slower, quieter—annoyingly graceful for a guy that broad.
Kat reached for the EMP puck.
But before she could toss it—
A voice barked from the shadows. "You hear that?"
One of the men turned.
Shit.
Kat pulled her hood lower and threw the puck toward the server console.
A pulse snapped through the air with a flash of white-blue light.
Sparks flew.
The room descended into chaos.
"GO!" she hissed at V—but of course he didn't listen.
He surged forward, dodging a bullet that ricocheted off the far wall. She ducked behind a crate and snatched a smoking hard drive from the frying system, jamming it into her bag.
"Cover me!" she shouted.
"I am the cover," V growled, moving like a shadow through the confusion.
Two of the humans ran—smart. The third stayed, raising a stun baton that crackled ominously.
Kat didn't hesitate.
She surged forward and drove her knee into his gut before he could swing.
He stumbled—but before she could finish him off, V was there, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming him into the wall hard enough to knock him out cold.
Kat turned on V, breathless and pissed.
"I had that."
"No, you had a target and no exit plan. You think you're invincible. You're not."
"And you think I need a goddamn babysitter?"
"I think you need someone watching your six before it gets full of bullets."
They were nose to nose again.
And this time, the silence burned like a brand.
Kat's pulse thudded in her ears. "You don't get to act like you care."
V's voice was lower now, dark with something unspoken. "You think I'd be here if I didn't?"
She blinked.
And that hesitation cost her.
Behind them, the third man—the one they thought was out cold—lunged with a knife.
Kat ducked on instinct.
V caught the blade mid-swing and twisted the attacker's arm until the crack echoed like a gunshot.
This time, the guy went down and stayed down.
Kat backed away, breath ragged.
"I didn't ask for this," she muttered.
V wiped blood off his glove. "Doesn't matter. You're in it now."
