Chapter 3

Elizabeth POV:

The faint beep quickly turned into a shrill, rapid alarm, and as I rushed back to the coffee table, cold sweat soaked through the back of my shirt.

On the screen, the red skull icon flashed beside a stream of reverse-tracking code, while the live ticker at the bottom of the TV news announced that Brock had just ordered a citywide network lockdown to hunt down the hacker.

I could almost picture Brock in his black custom suit, yanking his silk tie loose and grinding his back molars as his chief agent and right-hand man, Owen Hayes, mobilized their entire security apparatus.

As the tracking progress bar on our laptop screen surged toward one hundred percent, Zane broke free from Lily's grip, lunged at the keyboard, and began typing furiously to build an intercepting firewall.

I slammed my hand over his small knuckles, my voice tight with panic.

"Stop typing! Every keystroke gives them a more precise physical coordinate!"

Terrified by the blaring alarm, Lily clutched the hem of my trench coat, tears brimming in her wide eyes as she hid behind her brother without making a sound.

Without a second of hesitation, I yanked the power cord from the wall, forced a hard shutdown, and pried the burning-hot hard drive straight out of the casing.

Zane winced as his favorite custom hardware was ripped apart, biting his lip hard to stay quiet.

I wrapped the hard drive in layers of aluminum foil, tossed it into a bowl of water inside the microwave, and hit high power; within seconds, violent blue sparks crackled and fried the physical data into slag.

Even with the drive dead, I knew Griffin's tech team had already narrowed the signal down to our neighborhood in Queens.

I sprinted into the bedroom, shoved our unpacked clothes back into the suitcases, and zipped them up with a sharp yank.

Dropping to one knee in front of the twins, I gripped their shoulders.

"We have to leave right now. Not a single word until we're safe."

Zane nodded gravely, slung his small backpack over his shoulders, and took his sister's hand by the front door.

I pulled on a black baseball cap and a face mask, tucked my folding scalpel inside my waistband, and pushed the suitcases out into the hallway.

The motion-sensor lights flickered on above our heads as I scanned the empty corridor and hit the down button for the elevator.

As the elevator plunged toward the ground floor, the familiar weightlessness made my stomach lurch, dragging me back to the suffocating night I fled five years ago.

Stepping out of the lobby into the dreary drizzle, I flagged down a rideshare car, threw the bags into the trunk, and urged the driver to pull away immediately.

As the car merged into the congested traffic on Main Street in Flushing, I glanced through the rain-streaked rear window and spotted a black SUV tailing us three cars back.

Pulling out my burner phone with trembling fingers, I dialed an encrypted number, and my best friend Ciji Holder answered on the first ring, her voice sharp despite her family's recent bankruptcy crisis.

"Ciji, we're burned," I whispered rapidly. "Griffin's people are on our tail in Flushing. Activate the backup safehouse now."

"Damn it, Liz, hold on!" Ciji cursed on the other end before hanging up to set up our extraction route.

When our car stopped at a red light at the intersection, I checked my watch, every ticking second feeling like a noose tightening around my neck.

Zane suddenly tugged hard on my sleeve, pointing out the side window, his gray-blue eyes narrowing like a cornered wolf pup.

Following his finger, I saw four black bulletproof SUVs bearing the Griffin Security insignia closing in from the side street to box us in.

In the lead vehicle, the passenger window rolled halfway down, revealing right-hand man, Owen 's grim, calculating face through the rain.

I gasped, immediately shoving both children down onto the floorboard and throwing my body over theirs.

The rideshare driver stared at the armored convoy in terror, his hands shaking on the wheel.

"Lady, did you piss off the mob or something?"

"Shut up and run the red light!" I snapped, my voice cracking like a whip. "Turn right into that alley or none of us make it out alive!"

Gritting his teeth, the driver floored the gas pedal, the tires screeching on the wet pavement as we barely scraped past the back of a city bus and shot into the narrow alley.

Horns blared and brakes shrieked behind us while I held the twins tight, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Just as the end of the alley came into view, two blinding high beams flared to life in the darkness, and a massive black Range Rover pulled sideways across the exit, completely blocking our escape.