In the sudden darkness, Kasper's remaining functional nanobots screamed with proximity warnings.
Combat systems powered up around them – but the only heat signatures in the room were their own.
"Down!" Valerian's tactical training kicked in, his cybernetic eye already calculating trajectory patterns through the darkness. "Multiple hostile signatures materializing!"
The first shot pierced the blackness with lethal precision.
Kasper's compromised nanobots struggled to form a shield. Too slow. Pain exploded across his shoulder as something crackled through his weakened defenses.
Maria's healing field intensified. Lucas yanked her behind a console, his voice tight with realization. "The security system – it's been completely rewired. These aren't intruders, they're—"
Another shot cut through the air. Sean's shield barely deflected it, the energy discharge illuminating his face for a split second. "Team, scatter! Standard pattern three!"
But as Kasper moved to comply, his nanobots seized completely.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE] [FOREIGN CODE DETECTED - SOURCE: AUTHORIZED MEDICAL OVERRIDE] [ALL SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN...]
The last thing he saw before his systems crashed was Sarah's face in the emergency lights. For just a moment, her expression wasn't fear or concern.
It was satisfaction.
Then darkness took him, and the real nightmare began.
Hours later, Nailah's quantum decryption programs finally cracked the message hidden in Lucas's compromised database:
"The maze remembers. Ask Sarah about Valparaíso."
In the medical bay, Kasper's recovery pod pulsed with artificial life. Sarah hadn't left his side, her fingers moving across the medical controls with the same precise grace she'd shown earlier.
Too perfect.
Behind her, Commander Cross watched with unblinking cybernetic eyes.
Neither of them noticed the small combat drone scanning from the shadows, its quantum signature masked by protocols that shouldn't exist outside of Project Lazarus.
The drone's message transmitted on frequencies only Nailah's enhanced systems could detect:
"Target acquired. Phase two initiated."
The game was just beginning.