Elias Park woke to darkness, his head pounding like a hammer on glass. His mouth tasted of copper and chemicals, the needle's sting still burning in his neck. He was slumped in a chair, wrists bound behind him with zip ties that cut into his skin. The air was cold, damp, heavy with the scent of concrete and rust. A single bulb swayed overhead, casting jagged shadows across a room that felt like a tomb. Somewhere, water dripped, each drop a taunt.
He blinked, forcing his vision to clear. The power plant's bowels, he guessed—deep underground, where screams wouldn't carry. His Glock was gone, his coat too, leaving him in a sweat-soaked shirt. The clipboard from Warehouse 17 and Mara's USB drive were nowhere in sight. But the memory of Captain Regina Holt's voice—Target's here. Move in.—cut sharper than the zip ties. His own captain, a Veil puppet. The betrayal stung worse than the drugs in his system.
Footsteps echoed, deliberate, heavy. Park tensed as Kain stepped into the light, his scarred face a mask of cold amusement. The man from Seoul, the ghost who'd watched Sarah die, now stood close enough for Park to smell his cologne—sharp, expensive, wrong for a killer. Kain's eyes, pale and unblinking, studied him like a specimen.
"You're a hard man to kill, Detective," Kain said, his accent clipped, unplaceable. He held a syringe, its contents glowing faintly blue, like the vial Park had found in the warehouse. "Most don't get this far."
Park's voice was hoarse, but he forced it steady. "Where's Voss? What's The Veil want with her tech?"
Kain tilted his head, a predator sizing up prey. "Dr. Voss is… cooperative, now. Her implant is a marvel. Imagine rewriting a mind—loyalty, memory, will—all reshaped with a thought. New Jericho will kneel, and you'll help us."
"Like hell," Park spat, straining against the ties. Pain shot through his wrists, but he didn't care. Holt's betrayal, Sarah's death, the gaps in his memory—it all pointed to The Veil. "You were in Seoul. You killed my partner."
Kain's smile was thin, cruel. "Did I? Or did you?" He leaned closer, the syringe glinting. "Your memories aren't yours, Park. Not all of them."
The words hit like a blade. Park's mind reeled, flashes of Seoul flickering—Sarah's scream, blood pooling, his own hands shaking. Had he missed something? Failed her? Kain's words wormed into the cracks of his doubt, but he shoved them down. "You're full of shit."
Kain chuckled, stepping back as another figure emerged from the shadows. Holt. Her gray hair was pulled tight, her face unreadable, but her eyes held a flicker of something—regret? Guilt? She carried Park's clipboard, its pages marked with new notes in red ink.
"Elias," Holt said, her voice low, almost soft. "You should've stopped at the lab."
Park's glare burned into her. "You sold me out. How long have you been theirs?"
Holt didn't flinch. "Long enough to know you can't fight them. The Veil isn't a gang, Elias. It's the system. City hall, the precinct, the banks—they're all threads in the same web. Voss's tech is just the next step."
"Then why keep me alive?" Park's voice was a growl, his mind racing for an out. The zip ties were tight, but the chair felt loose, its bolts rusted.
Holt glanced at Kain, who nodded. "Because you're useful," she said. "You've got a knack for finding what's hidden. Help us get Voss's final code, and you walk. Refuse, and…" She gestured to the syringe in Kain's hand.
Park's pulse hammered. He didn't trust Holt, not anymore, but her words rang true—The Veil was bigger than he'd imagined. And Voss's code, whatever it was, was the key. He needed time, a plan. "What's the code do?" he asked, stalling.
Kain answered, his voice cold. "It unlocks the implant's full potential. Total control. One pulse, and New Jericho forgets its own name."
Before Park could respond, an alarm blared, sharp and sudden. Kain's head snapped toward a monitor on the wall, showing grainy footage of the power plant's exterior. A figure moved through the rain—Mara Chen, her hood up, planting something on the van outside. An explosive, Park realized, his chest tightening with hope and suspicion. Mara was a wild card, but she was here.
Kain cursed, barking orders into a comms device. "Secure the perimeter. Kill the intruder." He turned to Holt. "Prep him for the implant. We don't have time."
Holt hesitated, her hand hovering over the clipboard. Park saw his chance. He rocked the chair, feeling a bolt give way, and surged forward, slamming into Kain. The syringe clattered to the floor as Kain staggered, but he recovered fast, his fist cracking across Park's jaw. Pain exploded, stars bursting in his vision.
Holt grabbed Park's arm, pulling him back, but an explosion rocked the building, dust raining from the ceiling. Mara's device, Park thought, adrenaline surging. He twisted, snapping the chair's leg free, and swung it at Holt. She dodged, but the distraction gave him a second to kick the syringe across the room.
"Go!" Mara's voice crackled through a hacked speaker, her face flashing on the monitor. "Elias, move!"
Park bolted, his wrists still bound, as alarms screamed and footsteps pounded behind him. He stumbled up a stairwell, the power plant's maze swallowing him. Mara's explosion had bought him time, but Kain and Holt were close, and The Veil's web was tightening. He needed to find Mara, get the clipboard back, and figure out what Voss's code was before his own memories—already fractured—betrayed him completely.