The facility was a maze of concrete and steel. No windows, no clocks, no sense of time. Just the cold hum of artificial light and the heavy silence of six people trapped like animals in a cage built for their destruction.

Val had sent them in to kill each other.

She hadn't even bothered to lie about it.

Not after the doors sealed behind them and the comms cut out, not after they realized the mission was a set-up from the start. They were never meant to get out. Just erase each other and spare the government the mess.

It almost worked.

They had turned on each other — at first. Confusion, panic, blood. It wasn’t until the smoke settled and they realized no one had full orders that they stopped. Not because they trusted each other, but because they were smart enough to know someone else was pulling the strings.

And now they were stuck.

Battered, bruised, angry.

Trying to find a way out before the place buried them alive.

Ava was pacing again. “There’s got to be another exit. Vents. A sub-level. Something.”

Yelena was by the monitors, tapping buttons and muttering in Russian. “Everything’s been scrubbed. Whoever designed this place knew how to cover their tracks.”

Walker scoffed from the corner, leaning against the wall with that smug, permanent sneer. “Great. Trapped in here with a ghost, two government washouts, a girl who phases in and out like a glitchy video game, and—”

His eyes flicked toward the one sitting quietly in the farthest part of the room.

“—whatever that is.”

Bob Reynolds sat cross-legged in the shadows, knees pulled to his chest, staring at the wall like he could see something the rest of them couldn’t. He hadn’t spoken much. Hadn’t really done anything. Just showed up when the rest of them did, wearing that faraway look like he wasn’t fully here.

No one knew who he was. He hadn’t been on the manifest. Val hadn’t mentioned him. He hadn’t tried to hurt anyone, hadn’t defended himself when Walker shoved him earlier. Just blinked and mumbled something about light and gravity and how quiet it was.

“Jesus,” Walker muttered, pushing off the wall. “I’m not dying in here with some whacked-out mental patient who doesn’t even know his name.”