The circle was tightening. The muzzles of a half-dozen assault rifles were now pointed directly at our chests, the cold, dark circles promising a swift and brutal end. My mind was racing, a frantic whirlwind of desperation, searching for any angle, any advantage. There was none. We were outgunned, surrounded, exhausted, and crippled. By all tactical logic, we were already dead.
But I knew Jax. Or at least, I had known him. I had fought with him. He wasn't a rabid dog like Viper. He was a tactician. He was logical. But he was also proud. And his pride, his sense of righteous betrayal, was now fueled by a deep-seated rage. Rage makes people predictable. It creates blind spots.
He thought he had us trapped. He thought he was in complete control of the situation. That was his weakness. The moment a player thinks they've already won is the moment they are most vulnerable.
"You're right, Jax," I said, my voice changing. I let the pleading tone vanish, replaced by a strange, almost arrogant calm. I let my hands drop to my sides, a universal gesture of surrender. "You've got us. No more tricks."
Anya shot me a look of pure, bewildered confusion. Her eyes widened, asking a silent question: What are you doing? I ignored it. I had to sell this. I looked past Jax, my eyes scanning the faces of the Dominion soldiers behind him. They were hard men, survivors of a dozen brutal campaigns. But they were also followers. Their loyalty wasn't to an ideal, not anymore. It was to strength, and right now, Jax was their strength. I had to undermine that.
"You've thought this all through, haven't you?" I continued, looking back at Jax, a faint, knowing smile on my lips. "The perfect ambush. A hidden marketplace, cutting off our only escape route. Nowhere to run. Overwhelming firepower. It's a good plan. A clean kill box. Caden would have been proud of your tactical sense."
Jax's jaw tightened at the mention of his old mentor. The name was a key, one I knew would unlock his pride. I had struck a nerve.
"But you've missed one thing," I said, letting my voice drop to a conspiratorial whisper, loud enough for the men behind him to hear. "One tiny detail in your otherwise perfect plan. One variable that's going to get all of your new friends killed."
This got their attention. The Dominion soldiers shifted uneasily, their eyes flicking between me and Jax. I had planted a seed of doubt. I had introduced a crack in their perfect confidence.
"What are you talking about?" Jax demanded, his voice a low, threatening growl. He was trying to project control, but I could see the uncertainty in his eyes.
"I'm talking about him," I said, my voice dropping even lower. "The Enforcer. The Ghost. You think he just gave up? You think a little tunnel was enough to stop him? You heard the battle in the scrapyard. Did that sound like something that gives up?"
I let out a short, sharp laugh. It was a hollow, desperate sound, but I hoped it sounded like confidence, like I knew something they didn't. "Jax, you saw what that thing did to a full squad of Dominion elites up in Titan's Cross. Your new friends here," I gestured to the soldiers, "they're tough. But those men were better armed. They had heavy weapons. And it tore through them like they were paper. Now, its arm is damaged. It's angry. And it has been tracking us since we left the scrapyard."
"That's impossible," one of the Dominion soldiers said, the one with the scar on his jaw. "We would have seen it. Our perimeter is secure."
"Is it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You think it uses the main tunnels like some Exile scavenger? It's a System agent, a high-level one. It uses backdoors. Service shafts. It moves through the walls. It could be anywhere. It could be right outside this cavern right now, listening to us talk, waiting for you to do its job for it."
I let the paranoia sink in. The Undercroft was a labyrinth of forgotten passages and glitched-out code. The fear of the unknown, of a monster that didn't follow the rules, was a powerful weapon.
"He's lying," Jax said, his voice sharp. He was trying to reassure his men, but his eyes darted towards the dark tunnel we had come from. He was starting to doubt.
"Ask yourself this, Jax," I said, pressing my advantage, speaking directly to his tactical mind. "Why do you think we ran here? Of all the tunnels we could have taken, why this one? Why run into a populated marketplace? Out in the open?" I let the question hang in the air for a beat. "We were leading it here. We were leading it straight to you."
It was a complete and utter lie, born of pure, desperate invention. But it was a plausible one. It fit the facts.
"Why?" Jax asked, his voice tight. He had taken the bait.
"Because we needed a distraction," I said, my voice turning to ice. I looked at the Dominion soldiers, making eye contact with each of them. "We needed a big, loud, well-armed group of targets to keep the Enforcer busy while we slipped away in the chaos. And you and your new friends were perfect. You were the bait for our trap."
The Dominion soldiers now looked at Jax with open suspicion. I had turned his own crew against him. I had made them question their new leader's "perfect" plan. Their loyalty was wavering. Was Jax a strong leader who had cornered his prey? Or a foolish one who had led them all into a meat grinder?
Zane, the scarred Exile from Glitch's crew, would have started shooting by now. But Jax was a thinker. He was re-evaluating. Was it a bluff? A desperate lie from a cornered man? Or had he walked his crew, the last remnants of his people, into a trap far worse than the one he'd set for me?
His pride and his tactical sense were at war. He couldn't back down without looking weak. He couldn't press forward without risking everything on the chance that I was lying. In that moment of absolute hesitation, his perfect control shattered by a single, well-placed lie, I made my move.
"Anya," I whispered, so low only she could hear. "The fire pit. Now."
Without another word, I kicked the heavy metal table in front of Jax with all my strength. It tilted, sliding across the dusty floor and slamming into him, knocking him off balance. In the same motion, I lunged to the side, grabbing the high-end energy rifle he had been so carefully cleaning. It was my only chance at a real weapon.
The cavern erupted into chaos.