(Manhattan Skybridge)
Alia sprinted across the narrow skybridge, drones swarming behind her like a metal storm.
Carson's voice crackled in her earpiece:
"Go left! There's an old Sterling anti-air battery beneath the family estate!"
A missile struck the building beside her—
The shockwave hurled her into the air.
As she fell, a piece of Victor's cryo-case broke free—
Snapping onto a passing drone with a sharp magnetic pull.
The α-toxin didn't deploy.
Neutralized.
"The casing… it's coated in reverse-polarity alloy!" Alia realized.
She twisted midair, crashing into a ventilation shaft.
Stripping shards of the cryo-case, she strapped them to her boots.
Mid-fall, she opened fire—
Charged debris formed a magnetic net,
and the drone swarm self-destructed, drawn to their own demise like moths to flame.
The firestorm lit up the skyline.
And there—
Behind reinforced glass at the top of Davies Tower—
stood a gaunt, broken figure:
William Sterling. Alive. Imprisoned.