Lila's scream shattered the expensive silence of the penthouse.
Alex's mind, though enhanced, was battling the extreme exhaustion of his Endurance 4 body. But the System's demand to acquire hostage was now flashing red, overriding his pain.
Hostage. The word tasted metallic. Voss and the operative—a woman with cold, focused eyes—were blocking the escape route through the living room.
Voss was reaching for the weapon on his belt. The operative was already closing the distance with predatory calm.
Alex acted on pure, desperate System instruction. He covered the distance to Lila in a single, desperate lunge.
"Don't move!" Alex snarled, grabbing Lila and pulling her tightly against him. The movement was rough, fueled by panic, not skill. He pressed the shard of shattered photo frame against the delicate skin of her neck, careful not to break the skin, but ensuring the threat was clear.
Lila gasped, frozen in terror.
Voss stopped instantly, his hand hovering over the weapon. "Carter! What the hell are you doing? She's Ethan's fiancée!"
"She's my collateral," Alex corrected, his voice resonating with the perfected, high-pressure calm provided by his Charisma 20. "You came here to delete a problem, Voss. If you don't back off right now, I'll create a scandal that will end Elysium Holdings before Serena Blake can even log in this morning."
The female operative, however, didn't falter. She was a machine. She continued her slow, deliberate advance, her face a blank slate of lethal competence. "The collateral is irrelevant. My mission is acquisition."
Alex's Intuition analyzed the situation faster than thought: Voss was motivated by corporate fear; the operative was motivated by mission parameters. He could exploit the former, but he couldn't reason with the latter.
"Voss, look at her!" Alex demanded, jerking Lila's chin up slightly. "If I break her, Ethan loses face, your job is gone, and Serena's entire operation is compromised. She needs Ethan's reputation intact. Your boss needs to know his bride-to-be is safe. Call off your attack dog now!"
Voss's composure finally broke. He wasn't afraid of Alex; he was afraid of Ethan. The potential scandal outweighed the System acquisition.
"Stop! Stand down, Lena!" Voss barked at the operative. He glared at Alex. "You just bought yourself ten seconds, you lunatic."
Alex didn't waste them. He knew he couldn't keep Lila as a genuine hostage, nor did he want to. He only needed a distraction.
His eyes darted to the large, floor-to-ceiling windows. The penthouse was on the 30th floor, overlooking the park. Impossible. But his Intuition guided him, not to the floor, but to the frame.
"I'm leaving, Voss. And I'm taking the coin with me. If you try to stop me, I'm calling Elena Vasquez, the journalist, and telling her everything about Serena Blake, Damon Voss, and the $10 million line of credit you mortgaged!"
Voss took a shaky step back. "You don't have the stomach for this, Carter."
"Watch me."
Alex pushed Lila hard toward Voss. The sudden movement caught both men off guard. As Lila stumbled into Voss, creating a momentary human shield, Alex moved not toward the main door, but toward the nearest window.
He grabbed the large, heavy brass statue—an ugly testament to Ethan's wealth—from a nearby pedestal, and swung it with the last reserves of his physical strength.
The blow landed not on the glass, but on the window's pressure seal. The thermal and structural analysis from the System showed that the morning sun exposure had weakened the specific point where the seal was installed.
CRACK!
The window didn't shatter; it gave way with a horrific, sucking sound, the heavy glass panel swinging outward on its lower hinges like an inverted awning. A deafening roar of wind and the noise of the city rushed into the silent apartment, tearing at the curtains.
Voss shielded his eyes from the sudden debris. The operative, Lena, recovered faster, lunging toward Alex.
Alex didn't hesitate. He scrambled onto the sill, holding on to the window frame. He was 300 feet above the pavement, the wind whipping his hair.
Lena was a foot away, her hand closing on his ankle.
"Mission fail!" Lena shouted over the wind. "Acquisition failure. Threat neutralized!"
Alex kicked out violently. His low Endurance meant the kick was weak, but it was perfectly aimed. The blow connected not with Lena, but with the loose, shattered brass statue near her feet.
The statue tumbled outward, thirty stories down, a deadly streak of bronze, landing with a remote, muffled thunk on the concrete below.
Lena, shocked by the sound and the sudden shift in wind dynamics, paused for a fraction of a second. That was all Alex needed.
He threw himself sideways onto the narrow, adjacent window ledge, clutching the slick metal frame. He was now outside the apartment, hugging the side of the skyscraper, exposed, dizzy, and running on nothing but pure adrenaline.
The apartment lights snapped on as Ethan Harrington finally stormed out of his room, shouting incoherent questions.
Alex didn't wait. He began inching his way along the narrow ledge, the wind trying to peel him off the wall, moving toward the fire escape he had used on the adjacent building.
He glanced down one last time, peering through the broken glass of the apartment. Lila was huddled against Voss, sobbing. Ethan was shouting into his phone.
The final image, however, was Lena. She wasn't chasing him. She was standing by the broken window, looking down at the coin Alex had dropped in the struggle—the H-CORE anchor.
Wait. He hadn't dropped the coin. It was still warm in his pocket.
Lena wasn't looking at his coin. She was looking at a silver antique object he had never seen before, lying near the shattered window frame. It was identical to his coin, pulsing with a faint, blue light that faded into the carpet.
A second coin.
[SYSTEM ALERT: DUPLICATE H-CORE ANCHOR DETECTED.]Protocol Implication: H-CORE Architecture is **DECENTRALIZED. **
The System wasn't just his inheritance. It was a distributed network. His grandfather had created more than one anchor.
Alex risked one final burst of speed, reaching the safety of the adjacent fire escape. He collapsed onto the cold metal platform, his lungs burning, his body screaming a final, desperate protest.
The System is decentralized. Serena doesn't need my coin; she needs the network.
He pulled himself up the final flight of stairs to the rooftop, the rising sun a welcome sign of life. He was alive, but his body had failed him completely.
The reward chime echoed softly, almost mockingly, in his exhausted mind.
[MISSION 005: COUNTER-PROGRAM]SUB-MISSION STATUS: CHARISMA LEVERAGE COMPLETE.**REWARD: SKILL ENHANCEMENT—Endurance +10.**
A rush of cool energy flooded his system. The pain in his lungs vanished. The tremble in his hands steadied. He felt his muscles tighten, his awareness sharpen, his body instantly recovering from the trauma.
Alex staggered to the edge of the rooftop, looked across the city, and felt an awful mix of triumph and despair.
He was no longer human; he was a machine of data, optimized for power. But at least now, he had the Endurance to make it to the ferry terminal.
And he knew the real game: it wasn't about one System. It was about winning the network.