Hamdan's weight was heavy against her shoulder, his blood soaking through the linen of her sleeve. Lin Wei half-dragged, half-carried him across the dunes, every step sinking deep into the cold sand. Behind them, smoke still rose from the fortress like a dying beast.
"Stay with me," she whispered, her voice cracking.
His breath came in shallow bursts. "You should've left me."
"I'm not leaving you again," she said fiercely. "Not this time."
When they finally stumbled into a cluster of ruined caravans, she forced him to the ground. The moon was fading into dawn, its light cold and blue.
His wound was bad—high on the shoulder, the bullet still lodged. She tore open his shirt with shaking hands.
"Don't—" he began.
"Shut up," she snapped, voice trembling. "You saved me. Now let me save you."
Using a knife she'd taken from the ruins, she dug out the bullet with terrifying focus. Hamdan's jaw locked; he didn't make a sound. When the slug fell into the sand, she poured liquor over the wound and pressed fabric against it until the bleeding slowed.
By the time the sun rose, Hamdan's pulse had steadied. He looked pale but alive.
"You're stronger than I thought," he murmured weakly.
She gave a bitter laugh. "You've underestimated women your whole life, haven't you?"
He smiled faintly. "Only the ones who scare me."
She turned away so he wouldn't see her smile.
They sheltered inside one of the derelict caravans. The walls creaked in the wind, the air thick with dust and gasoline.
Hamdan dozed fitfully, feverish. Lin Wei sat beside him, watching the horizon. For the first time since arriving in this country, the silence didn't feel empty—it felt like waiting.
Her thoughts churned: Omar's betrayal, Leila's disappearance, the King's death.Every thread of her life had been severed in one night.
She reached for Hamdan's jacket, rummaging through its pockets for supplies—and found something she didn't expect.
A silver data drive, engraved with the royal crest.
She frowned, turning it in her hand. It was small, innocuous—but when she inserted it into Hamdan's satellite communicator, the screen flickered to life.
Lines of encrypted text scrolled past.Coordinates. Names.And one file marked "Project SANDGATE."
Her heart pounded. She opened it.
The file was written in Arabic and English both, half-classified, half-translated.It wasn't about weapons. It was about people.
"Subject Line W-12: Female, age 25. Imported under cultural exchange visa, covert genetic trial candidate. Adaptation index—exceptional. Memory resilience—unusually high."
Her vision blurred.Female, age 25. Imported under cultural exchange visa.
That was her.
She scrolled down, hands shaking.
"Specimen selected for integration test. Potential behavioral stability: 91%. Suitable for long-term psychological exposure experiments. Objective: establish loyalty trigger protocol."
Lin Wei stumbled back from the screen, nausea rising. The truth slammed into her like the explosion that had destroyed the palace.
She wasn't a random maid plucked from obscurity. She was a subject—a piece of an experiment designed to create obedience.
And someone had placed her in the palace on purpose.
The communicator crackled suddenly.
A distorted voice broke through the static:"Miss Lin Wei. If you can hear this… you were never supposed to open that file."
She froze. "Who is this?"
The voice laughed softly. "The question isn't who I am—it's who you are. And whether you'll remember who made you forget."
Then the connection died.
When Hamdan stirred, she was still shaking.
"What's wrong?" he asked groggily.
She hesitated, then handed him the drive. "You should see this."
He scanned the file, his expression darkening with each line. "This… this can't be real."
"It's real," she whispered. "You said I didn't belong here. Maybe you were right—but not for the reason you think."
He looked up sharply. "Lin Wei, whatever this is, it doesn't change who you are."
"It changes everything!" she snapped, the fear finally breaking through. "They built me to obey, Hamdan. To serve! Maybe even to—"
He caught her hand, pulling her close. "Listen to me. You are not their creation. You saved me. You chose to stay. That's who you are."
For a moment, neither spoke. Their breaths mingled in the heat, their anger and fear dissolving into something wordless, magnetic.
Then a faint hum reached them—the sound of approaching engines.
Leila's voice came from the doorway. "Touching scene. But we need to move. Now."
Lin Wei spun. "Where have you been?"
Leila stepped into the light, her face streaked with sand and blood. "Following Omar's trail. He's headed to the capital."
Hamdan stiffened. "To Rahim?"
Leila shook her head. "No. Rahim's dead."
The words hit like thunder.
Hamdan stood, swaying but furious. "Who killed him?"
Leila's eyes flicked to Lin Wei. "That's the interesting part. His last message mentioned a code—W-12. Whatever that means, they wanted it alive."
Lin Wei's blood ran cold.
W-12.Her code.
Leila smiled thinly. "Congratulations, darling. You're not just part of the story anymore. You are the story."
Outside, black helicopters cut across the dawn. Through the dust, the royal insignia glinted—no longer Hamdan's crest, but Omar's.
Lin Wei looked at the approaching storm and whispered, "Then let's end their experiment."