The sirens inside Light Enterprises wailed like a funeral dirge. Red lights pulsed overhead, staining the walls in blood-colored flashes. Jade and Kelz stood back-to-back in the vault room, guns drawn, as armed guards funneled through the broken glass.
"Four incoming," Kelz muttered.
"Five," Jade corrected, sighting the shadow slipping through the far door. "They brought the damn cavalry."
The first guard lunged—Kelz dropped him with a shot to the shoulder. Jade fired cleanly at the second, catching his leg. No killing shots. Not yet. They needed answers. They needed that damn tape.
As bullets tore through the air, Kelz ducked and rolled toward the file cabinets, grabbing the sealed envelope Mira had told them about. Inside: names, dates, transactions. Payoffs. Cover-ups. The rot ran deeper than they thought.
"Go!" Kelz shouted, tossing a smoke grenade.
They burst through the emergency exit into the stairwell, spiraling down floor after floor with the sound of boots pounding behind them. On the twentieth floor, another ambush—this time led by someone familiar.
Jayden.
The shining, charming face from prom night. Still perfect. Still cruel.
"Well, well," he smirked, gun lowered. "Didn't think you had it in you, Jade. But look at you now—bulletproof and pissed."
"I'm not bulletproof," she said, stepping forward. "But I've got nothing left to lose."
Jayden lifted his gun, but Kelz was faster.
They crashed into him. The gun skidded across the floor.
It was a blur—fists, boots, rage. Jade's elbow cracked across Jayden's face. Kelz drove a knee into his gut. When Jayden finally dropped, gasping for air, Jade leaned in close.
"You'll get your turn. All of you will."
They ran.
Below, Mira waited in a black van, engine roaring.
"Did you get it?" she yelled.
Jade held up the bloodied tape. "We got everything."
As they sped into the night, sirens blaring behind them, Mira glanced back.
"This ends one way," she said. "With fire."
And Jade, clutching the tape to her chest, whispered, "Then let it burn."