The thrift store was small and dimly lit, the scent of old clothes and mothballs hanging heavy in the air.
There were no other customers inside—only Linn, who stood in the fitting room, hurriedly changing into the clothes she had randomly picked from the racks.
It was past nine in the evening.
The store should have been closed by now if not for Linn’s last-minute intrusion.
“Here is my payment. May I borrow your scissors?”
The clerk stared at her, blinking in confusion.
“Scissors? Sure. One moment, please.”
Linn watched the clerk disappear into the back of the store, tapping her fingers lightly against the counter as she waited.
Come on.
Make it quick.
The seconds dragged.
Finally, the clerk returned with a pair of scissors and handed them over.
Linn gave a small smile before returning to the fitting room.
She faced the mirror and stared at herself for a moment.
She would survive.
She had to.
The scissors made quick work of her long hair, leaving behind a short, choppy cut that framed her face differently.
It was uneven and far from graceful, but it would have to do.
She pulled on a cap, making sure it concealed most of her face, then left the shop.
She needed to find somewhere safe.
But where could she go for help?
The city stretched before her, buildings and streets blending into a confusing maze.
She felt lost and terrified.
She kept moving, her body on autopilot and her thoughts racing.
Everywhere she looked, she felt as though there were eyes on her—watching, stalking, closing in.
Desperation tightened around her chest.
Her feet carried her through alleyways and backstreets, instinctively avoiding the main roads.
Even there, however, she could not shake the feeling of being watched.
Her eyes darted from one direction to another as her mind ran through every possibility.
She could not go to the police.
One of them was there.
She could not go to her friends.
They could be dragged into this.
She was on her own.
She was alone.
The night was deceptively calm.
Neon lights flickered over quiet streets, but Enphire knew better.
Danger did not announce itself.
Inside the command vehicle, Karma kept his eyes on the road while Chaconne’s laptop glowed beside him, wires connecting it to a compact device—the Prototype Phase Scanner.
This was no ordinary tracker.
The Phase Scanner did not track a person directly.
It detected unusual disturbances associated with anomalies, allowing the team to identify their presence even when conventional surveillance failed.
“Team, status.” Karma’s calm voice cut through the comms.
“Phase Scanner prep in motion. Helium, feed me everything—cameras, traffic cams, anything.”
Helium’s fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard, streams of data reflecting in his glasses.
“GPS pinged. Signal is locked. I have patched it into the local surveillance grid.”
“Any trails?” Karma asked, eyes scanning the road ahead.
“Anomaly is moving through the blind spots of the surveillance cameras. Good luck tracking her visually,” Helium replied.
“This is where it gets tricky. Scanner’s effective radius is only twenty meters. But with the GPS location from her phone, we can predict where she will be next. I’ll have the scanner sweep for anomalous activity once we are within range,” Chaconne responded.
“So it is basically a predictive sweep,” Karma muttered.
“Twenty meters is not much. Drive carefully. If the scanner picks her up, we need a secure perimeter immediately.”
“I’ll keep monitoring the local cameras and street sensors in case she moves into an exposed area,” Helium added.
“But honestly, her route is clean. You are up, Chaconne. Your scanner is the one getting us close.”
Karma steered into a narrow alley shadowed on both sides, the tires crunching over loose gravel.
Chaconne adjusted the scanner’s settings, watching the readings stabilize across the laptop screen.
“Calibration complete. Scanner is live.”
He paused, studying the display.
“Any significant anomalous fluctuation within range will appear on the grid.”
“XO, status.” XO’s voice came through the comms.
“Two hostiles spotted. Moving north. Civilians being transported. Command?”
“Keep tailing. Maintain distance for now. Do not lose them.”
“On it. But I need backup. XO to Lucifer.”
There was a brief pause on the line.
Then the faint metallic slide of a van door echoed through the comms.
Behind the police station at Alta Square, Lucifer stepped out from the shadows, dragging an unconscious police officer in full uniform toward a parked van.
Lucifer was dressed in an identical police uniform himself, allowing him to move through the area without attracting suspicion.
The unconscious officer’s cap had fallen off, revealing a small earpiece hidden beneath his hair.
The man was not a real police officer either—he was an operative planted by the opposing organization to intercept Parallax.
Lucifer hoisted him into the back of the van like dead weight.
The door slammed shut.
“Finally, real work,” he said lazily over the comms as he dusted off his hands.
“I thought I was going to die of boredom. Can you not kick me out of the real action ever again?”
Karma did not sound amused.
“Less talking, more driving.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes as he rounded the van and slid into the driver’s seat.
“Proceeding.”
Back inside the command vehicle, Chaconne tapped a few keys and watched the scanner readings carefully.
Just then, the device pulsed.
A sudden spike appeared on the display.
“Disturbance detected. Anomalous signature within range.” His fingers moved across the keyboard.
“Moving north, toward the city center.”
“And the hostiles are heading north too?” Helium asked.
“They have found her.” Karma’s expression hardened.
“Everyone, avoid hostile contact unless necessary. We only have two objectives tonight. Free the civilians and secure Parallax.”
He glanced at the scanner before returning his attention to the road.
“Flicker, you are closest. Head north and locate Parallax physically. Do not approach immediately. Observe first. We don’t know her condition yet.”
“Proceeding.” Flicker’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper.
Karma pressed the comms again.
“Lucifer, use your police access to control the area and delay the hostiles if necessary. Link up with XO. You two will intercept. Do not let them reach the city center.”
“Lucifer. With pleasure.”
“Got it. XO moving.”
“Helium, stay on surveillance. Track the hostile vehicle and feed XO and Lucifer their route in real time.”
“Helium. On it.”
Karma then glanced at Chaconne.
“Keep the Phase Scanner running and feed Flicker the safest routes. He will be our eyes on the ground.”
Chaconne nodded, eyes fixed on the laptop.
Karma pressed the comms one more time, his voice firm and steady.
“We split the team. No unnecessary fights. Fast in, fast out. We finish this quickly and quietly. No mistakes.”
“Understood,” several voices replied almost simultaneously.
A tense silence settled over the vehicle as the team coordinated from different locations, each member focused on their assigned role.
Outside, the city continued to pulse with indifferent lights.
Karma frowned slightly.
Someone was missing.
“I haven’t heard the devil speak tonight.”
Chaconne glanced at him from the passenger seat.
“Which devil? We are seven.”
“The worst one.”
Karma pressed the comms button.
“Karma to Paradox. Status?”
No response.
He pressed it again.
“Karma to Paradox.”
Still nothing but static.
His expression tightened.
“Paradox, report your position. That is an order—”
A sudden ding echoed through the comms.
The unmistakable sound of someone disconnecting from the channel.
For a split second, there was silence.
Then the entire line erupted.
“Oh man—he disconnected!” Helium burst out laughing.
“He literally dipped the moment you called him!”
Lucifer chuckled.
“The bastard always does that. Every time you start giving him an earful, he vanishes.”
XO’s voice came through, laughing as he drove.
“I swear he has a sixth sense for responsibility!”
Chaconne shook his head, still watching the scanner.
“Top tactical commander. Missing in action during the mission.”
Helium laughed again.
“Imagine being up against the enemy and our commander is ghosting us.”
“Bastard,” Karma muttered under his breath.
There was no real anger in his voice—only tired acceptance.
“One of these days, I’m removing him from the comms permanently.”
XO laughed again.
“You say that every mission.”
“And every mission, the devil still outranks all of us,” Lucifer added.
A short pause followed.
Then Helium spoke again, amusement still evident in his voice.
“You know what is worse? He is probably already on the field and just doesn’t want to talk to us.”
Silence fell over the comms as everyone considered the possibility.
Then Chaconne sighed.
“That sounds like him.”
Karma shook his head.
“Unbelievable.”
Helium chuckled.
“Relax. If Paradox is really already out there…”
“…then this is the hostiles’ last night,” Lucifer finished.