The discovery of Elias Vance’s quantum energy project sent a new wave of fear through Eva and Lucian. For the first time, they truly saw the full picture. The Maestro didn’t just want to control people’s minds or steal their money. She wanted to reshape the world itself. To wipe the slate clean and build a new order on her terms.“She doesn’t want power,” Eva said quietly. “She wants to play god.”Lucian’s face was tight with worry as he stared at the schematics. “This is global control,” he said. “She can give the world light… or throw it into darkness with one press of a button.”Izzy nodded solemnly. “The Watchers have been following rumors of this tech for years. Elias Vance was a genius, but he believed humanity was broken. He thought the only way to fix it was to destroy it first.”With the world still unaware of what was coming, their team had one goal: find the actual location of the energy source before The Maestro could activate it.Izzy dove into the hunt, searching through
Eva’s survival felt like a miracle.She was hurt, bruised all over, and weak but she was alive. Her return gave the entire team a new kind of strength. Lucian barely left her side. The look in his eyes every time he saw her said everything: he thought he had lost her forever. Every small touch, every quiet word between them now carried more weight than before.Ari stayed close too. She brought Eva drawings, folded hearts, and sat quietly near her bed, afraid to leave. Her joy was gentle and honest, it helped Eva heal more than the medicine did.But while Eva’s body healed, something darker stayed in the air. Margaret; her mother, The Maestro had escaped. Her last words still rang in Eva’s ears like a curse.“She’s a ghost now,” said Margaret Thorne, the real Margaret, Lucian’s mother, as they sat reviewing the latest reports.“She’ll disappear for a while,” she added. “But she won’t stop. She’ll rebuild. And this time, she’ll be worse.”Detective Reyes had confirmed it. There had been
The sound of the explosion was like thunder ripping the world apart. Inside the narrow tunnel, Lucian held Ari close as the blast shook everything around them. Smoke and heat followed them like a monster. But he didn’t stop running.Eva’s last scream echoed in his mind. The metal crashing. The alarms. The moment she chose to stay behind so they could escape. The pain in his chest was unbearable.“Eva!” Lucian shouted into the dark, but there was no reply.Ari clung to him, crying and shaking. Marcus, covered in dust, pushed them forward with his good arm. “Keep moving! She gave us a chance—go!”The tunnel was tight and filled with smoke. They could barely see. The ground shook again, and pieces of the tunnel started to fall.Then came the real blast; a loud boom behind them. A bright light flashed, and the tunnel almost collapsed. Lucian grabbed Ari and shielded her with his body. Everything shook. Everything roared.And then, silence.Slowly, they crawled forward until they reached t
Sweat poured down Eva’s face as the red emergency lights on the walls blinked like a dying heartbeat just after they had survived the first explosion. The back-up self-destruct sequence roared through the room, a storm of mechanical whirring and hissing circuits. The smell of burning wires filled the air.They were seconds away from being wiped out.“Lucian! The restraints!” Eva shouted, reaching blindly for the buckles holding Ari down.Lucian was already at her side, jaw clenched, face pale with pain as he worked through his injury. “They’re reinforced!” he said through gritted teeth. “Some kind of tamper-proof lock!”Margaret’s voice echoed over the noise, every word soaked in venom. “ You really thought I wouldn’t prepare for this? You underestimated me. Again. Now let me see you escape this one, it’s frequency is much higher than the first one”Eva yanked harder, her fingers raw, eyes burning. “Ari, stay with me, stay awake, baby.”Ari sobbed, struggling to speak. “I’m scared…”
The EMP hit like a thunderclap, silencing the room with its invisible force. Lights snapped off. Communications died. Darkness swallowed everything.Eva blinked into the void, but there was no light, no shape, no way to tell up from down. The suffocating black was complete, pressing against her skin like a second, tighter layer. Every breath felt harder.“Lucian!” she screamed, her voice bouncing off unseen walls.“Eva! Ari!” he called back, voice raw and panicked.The safe house, already a trap, now became a maze of fear and confusion. The sounds of combat exploded around her; thuds, groans, fists meeting flesh. Someone slammed into a wall. Another grunted in pain. Metal scraped. A weapon dropped.Even hurt, Marcus Kane fought like a machine. Eva could hear the precision in his calculated, sharp movements. But there were too many bodies in the dark, too much noise. Zadie’s snarling curses mixed with Derek Mason’s heavy grunts. The tactical unit shouted over each other, disoriented an
The air inside the safe house felt heavy; too still, too silent. Eva stood frozen, staring at the woman she had trusted more than anyone, the woman who had shaped her mind and her moral compass. Her mother. Margaret Langston.But now, that name felt like a lie.Her voice trembled as she said it. “Mother?”Margaret tilted her head slightly, her lips curling into a chilling smile that held no warmth. “Not Mother, Eva. Not anymore. That name was a role. A mask. I am The Maestro. And you, my dear, have been playing in my symphony all along.”It felt like the world cracked under Eva’s feet.Lucian surged forward, his face twisted with fury and betrayal. “You? You’re The Maestro? You planned this? You used your own daughter? You kidnapped Ari?”Margaret chuckled. The sound was hollow, like it echoed from somewhere far beneath the surface of who she had once been. “Such anger. Still trying to be the hero. Yes, Lucian. I planned everything. PharmaCorp? Just the opening act. Vivian Thorne was