10:30 P.M. – DedSec Hackerspace

The basement hummed with a steady, intense energy. It wasn't the frenetic chaos I'd expected—it was sharper and more focused, like a coiled spring waiting to snap. Wrench had invited me to audit an important DedSec mission tonight, and I was intrigued enough to accept. If they needed my help, I'd be ready.

In the center of it all was a familiar face I hadn't seen since that night at Blume: the cocky intruder I'd caught tinkering with Dusan's system. M.

He leaned casually against the edge of a workstation, arms crossed, his eyes scanning the room with a calm intensity. The others buzzed around him, speaking in low, clipped voices. The moment I stepped through the door, every head turned. The air shifted, thick with expectation.

"Well, well," M drawled, straightening up as I approached. "The translator returns."

I kept my face impassive, nodding curtly. "Figured you might need me."

"Hey!" Wrench's voice rang out, pulling my attention to where he was perched on the arm of a beat-up sofa. He shot me a lazy salute, his mask flashing a grinning skull emoji. "You made it."

"Yeah, well… you did say there'd be chaos," I replied lightly, shrugging off my jacket. "Wouldn't want to miss that."

A ripple of laughter ran through the room, and the tension in my shoulders eased—just a fraction. One of the figures at the main console—the slender woman with a side ponytail and bright eyes—glanced over her shoulder, a curious smile playing on her lips.

"Glad to see you're still with us," she said. "I was beginning to think you'd ghosted us."

I raised an eyebrow. "And why would I do that?"

"Because you're smart," she replied, her smile widening. "And smart people usually don't stick around when the stakes get high."

I didn't respond, unsure how to take that. She didn't sound accusatory, just… thoughtful. Like she was assessing me. I glanced at Wrench, but he just grinned, clearly enjoying the back-and-forth.

"Give her a break," he said cheerfully, hopping down from his perch. "She's here, isn't she?"

"Barely," the woman muttered, turning back to her screen.

My gaze flicked to the others—a lean guy lounging on the couch, a quiet figure hunched over a laptop in the corner. I'd seen them around before, but we'd never really spoken. They worked like a well-oiled machine, moving in sync, finishing each other's sentences. And then there was me, standing awkwardly on the sidelines.

"So," I said finally, breaking the silence. "What's the plan?"

The woman looked up again, her expression shifting to something more serious. "The plan is simple. We're hitting Blume's main comms server tonight."

My heart stuttered. "Isn't that… a little ambitious?"

"It is," the guy on the couch agreed, his voice a low drawl. "But not impossible."

"We've been prepping for weeks," the woman added, her eyes sharp. "We've mapped out the firewalls, traced the network paths. All we need is to breach the outer defenses and—"

"—and we'll be swimming in data," Wrench finished with a gleeful tone.

The enormity of the plan washed over me. This wasn't just a hack. This was a declaration of war.

"And you want me to… help?" I asked, my voice smaller than I'd intended.

"Help?" Wrench scoffed. "Nah, we want you to kick ass."

"Your linguistic skills are what we need," the woman explained, her gaze steady on mine. "Blume's comms are encrypted in multiple languages—Mandarin, Russian, Korean. They think it'll keep people like us out."

"But we've got you," M finished, his lips quirking up into a small smile. "And that changes things."

I swallowed hard, glancing between them. They were all looking at me now, expectation and hope mingling in their eyes. I was used to being underestimated, overlooked. But this? This felt… different.

"What do you say?" Wrench asked softly, his mask shifting into a pair of wide, hopeful eyes. "You in?"

My chest tightened. I'd worked so hard to keep my head down at Blume, to avoid attention, to play it safe. But now, here they were, offering me a chance to do more than just survive. A chance to fight back.

I took a deep breath, nodding slowly. "Yeah. I'm in."

"Hell yeah!" Wrench whooped, punching the air.

The others exchanged glances, a silent ripple of approval passing between them. The woman turned back to her monitor, her fingers flying over the keys.

"Alright," she said briskly. "Let's move out."

11:45 P.M.

The room was lit only by the soft glow of monitors and the rapid clicking of keyboards. The atmosphere was tense, every movement deliberate, every breath measured. I sat hunched over a terminal, staring at the block of encrypted text on my screen. My fingers itched to type, but I held back, waiting for the signal.

"We're in," the quiet guy in the corner murmured, his voice barely audible. His fingers moved in a blur over his laptop. "Firewall's down. You've got a ten-minute window."

"Copy that," M replied, his voice clipped, professional. "Teagan, you're up."

I took a deep breath, nodding as I leaned forward. The block of text on my screen shifted and shimmered, lines of code rearranging themselves in a complex web of symbols and numbers. But I could see it—the pattern beneath the chaos, the hidden structure waiting to be unraveled.

"It's… it's Mandarin," I murmured, my brow furrowing. "But it's using a rare dialect. It's… old, academic, almost ceremonial."

"Blume's using ceremonial Mandarin to encrypt corporate documents?" Wrench muttered, sounding incredulous. "That's overkill."

"Yeah, well, they think they run a tight security system," the woman said dryly. "Teagan, can you crack it?"

"I can try," I said softly, fingers flying over the keys.

The room fell silent as I worked, every eye trained on me. My pulse hammered in my throat, but I forced myself to focus, to breathe. The characters shifted, rearranged themselves, forming words, phrases. Slowly, the message took shape.

"It's… a transfer log," I murmured, my eyes widening. "Blume's been funneling money into a shell company. They're buying surveillance software—something custom-built."

"Surveillance software?" the guy on the couch repeated, his brow furrowing. "Why outsource?"

"Because they don't want it on the books," I muttered, scanning the text again. "It's a black project."

"And black projects mean blackmail," M finished quietly, his gaze intent. "This is bigger than just surveillance. They're building something off the grid."

The implications hit me like a freight train. This wasn't just a hidden project. This was a weapon—something Blume was using to control, manipulate, destroy.

"We need more," the woman said, her voice low and urgent. "If we can trace the money, we can—"

"Wait," I interrupted, my fingers flying over the keys again. "There's more here. There's a reference to… a secure data vault."

"A vault?" Wrench echoed, his mask flashing a series of question marks. "What kind of vault?"

"I don't know," I admitted, my heart racing. "But it's heavily protected. Whatever's in there… they really don't want anyone to find it."

The others exchanged glances, a ripple of excitement passing through them. M's gaze sharpened, his lips curving into a small, satisfied smile.

"That's what we need," he murmured softly. "The vault. If we can find it—"

"We can rip out Blume's spine," the woman finished, her eyes gleaming. "We can expose everything."

The weight of what we were doing crashed down on me. This wasn't just about Dusan, or even Blume's secrets. This was about tearing down a system that had held people like me—people like us—captive for far too long.

"Teagan," M said quietly, drawing my attention back to him. His gaze was steady, unwavering. "You've got this."

I stared at him, feeling the pressure, the weight of all their expectations. They were counting on me. Me, the corporate drone who'd stumbled into their world by sheer accident.

But they believed in me.

"Okay," I whispered, nodding. "Okay. Let's find that vault."

The minutes ticked by in tense, focused silence. I worked in tandem with the guy on the couch—who still hadn't introduced himself, I realized distantly—tracing the lines of code, peeling back layer after layer of encryption until—

"Here," I breathed, my heart leaping into my throat. "The vault is… it's in a secure node. Completely isolated."

"Can we get in?" the woman asked sharply.

"Not remotely," I said, shaking my head. "It's air-gapped. No external connections."

"Which means," Wrench murmured, his voice hushed, "we're gonna have to go in."

The room fell silent.

"Physically?" I muttered, sounding half-amused, half-horrified. "You want to break into Blume? Again?"

"We're not breaking in," the woman said, her gaze locked on mine. "We're inviting ourselves. With your help."

I blinked, caught off guard. "My help?"

"You're our in," M said softly. "You're still on the inside, so if we can get you close enough, we can plant a device."

"A device," I repeated after him.

"A wireless bridge," the quiet guy finished. "Something to connect the vault to our network."

My head spun, the plan unfolding faster than I could process. They wanted me to go back to Blume—to walk into Dusan's territory and plant a device that could link his most secure data vault to them.

It was suicide.

And yet…

I took a deep breath, looking around at the four of them—Wrench, the woman, M, and the quiet guy. They were all staring at me, anxiously waiting for my answer.

"Alright," I said softly, my voice shaking. "I'll do it."

The woman's smile was sharp, triumphant. "Welcome to the fight."

12:39 A.M.

I sank into the nearest chair, adrenaline still coursing through me, but exhaustion was creeping in fast. My brain was buzzing—not from code—but from the intensity of translating everything hidden in the encrypted messages. Mandarin was tricky enough, but this… this was on another level. But I'd done it.

The room was alive with energy, but there was no chaos. It was more like a quiet hum of satisfaction after a job well done. Everyone was chatting in low voices, going over the details, combing through the newly liberated data.

"You did good, Teagan," the woman at the console said, her voice steady but warm. She hadn't looked up from her screen yet, but there was unmistakable approval in her tone.

"Thanks," I muttered, still feeling the weight of what we'd pulled off. "Couldn't have done it without you all setting the stage."

"You're giving us too much credit," she replied, finally glancing over at me, the corner of her lips twitching into a smile. "Breaking through Blume's comms encryption in Mandarin? That's next-level stuff. We needed you for this."

I blinked, caught off guard by the praise. "Well, I'm glad I could help."

"You nailed it, T," Wrench added from across the room, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. His mask flashed an animated thumbs-up. "Looks like you've got a knack for chaos just as much as we do."

I shook my head with a small smile. "You definitely didn't oversell it."

M chimed in with a slow nod. "Good job, Teagan."

I smiled. "Thanks, M."

"Yeah, by the way," he said with a slight grin, then added, "the name's Marcus."

"Marcus," I repeated, filing the name away. Finally.

"Don't look at me," Wrench interrupted, throwing up his hands in mock defense. "I'm still Wrench, and I'm definitely not Marcus."

A laugh bubbled up, lightening the weight I'd been carrying since we started the op. "Noted."

I glanced over at the woman, who had been calmly orchestrating the entire breach with the precision of a conductor.

She met my gaze, her eyes thoughtful before she finally said, "Sitara."

"Sitara," I echoed, nodding in acknowledgment. "Nice to finally know your names."

"And the quiet guy over there?" Wrench waved toward the corner, where the soft-spoken hacker was still hunched over his laptop, diligently working on something I couldn't even begin to comprehend. "That's Josh."

Josh hesitated, glancing up from his screen with a shy, almost apologetic smile. "Uh, hey."

"Hey, Josh," I replied, offering a small smile of my own.

"Now you know," Marcus said, pushing off the couch and walking over to the main console. "So what's the deal? Think you'll stick around after tonight?"

The question hit me harder than I expected. Did I? I glanced around the room, at each of them—Marcus, Sitara, Wrench, and Josh. I'd spent so long at Blume, keeping my head down, trying to play it safe. But here, with these people, I felt something I hadn't in years: belonging. I wasn't just another cog in a machine. I was part of something bigger.

"I… yeah," I said, the words coming out slower than I'd planned. "Yeah, I think I do."

Wrench punched the air triumphantly. "Hell yeah!"

"Take it easy," Sitara said, her smile still warm but tempered. "This isn't a light decision, Teagan. You know what DedSec is up against."

"I know," I replied, nodding slowly. "But I've seen them use people—use me—to prop up their system for years." I paused, glancing at Wrench, who was watching me intently. "I'm done with that."

Marcus's gaze sharpened, but there was a flicker of approval in his eyes. "You're sure?"

I exhaled, the weight of my past decisions pressing in on me. "Yeah. I'm sure."

"Then we officially welcome you to DedSec," Sitara said, her voice holding a mix of pride and warning.

The words echoed in the room, sinking deep into the core of who I was. This was war. And I was in it now, whether I liked it or not.

Later, as the others chatted and dug through the files we'd extracted from Blume, I found myself standing by the large wall of screens, watching as data streamed in. This was more than I ever imagined being part of. Every document, every bit of code was a piece of the puzzle. A puzzle that, if we completed it, could bring Blume—and people like Dusan Nemec—to their knees.

I hadn't officially quit Blume yet. But after tonight… it was clear to me that my time there was over.

I thought of Dusan, sitting in his glass office, pulling the strings. I thought of the years I'd spent being just another pawn in his game. But now? Now, I had something he couldn't control: Power. Information. A team.

I glanced at Wrench, who was currently spinning in his chair, laughing at something on his screen. I looked at Marcus, deep in conversation with Sitara, the two of them strategizing about the next phase. Josh, still quiet, but offering input when needed. They were so different from the life I'd known, but somehow, they fit.

And then there was me. The ex-corporate drone who'd stumbled into their world by accident. But I wasn't that person anymore.

Tomorrow, I'd go into Blume for the last time. I'd walk out of there without looking back, leaving Dusan and his threats behind. Because now, I wasn't afraid of him. I wasn't afraid of anything.