3. Jonah
Jonah
T he door bursts inward beneath my shoulder with a violent crack.
Wood splinters.
The frame slams against the wall as I enter hard and fast, weapon raised.
Left clear.
Right clear.
Too clear.
The abandoned room smells like dust and cold concrete. Rain taps faintly against the broken windows overhead while shadows stretch long across the empty space.
No servers.
No security.
No sign of the intelligence system that hijacked Delta Five’s network.
Ronan steps in behind me, covering the opposite angle. “Clear.”
But the word comes rough.
Suspicious.
I sweep the room again slowly, pulse thudding harder with every second.
Nothing about this feels abandoned.
It feels prepared.
Like someone stripped the room clean minutes before we arrived.
“She’s here,” I say quietly.
Ronan glances toward the far wall. “Question is where.”
I don’t answer.
Because I can feel it.
That same instinctive pull that started behind the screen now presses against the back of my neck like a hand guiding me forward.
Closer.
My gaze drops.
The floor.
A faint line cuts across the concrete.
Almost invisible unless you’re looking for it.
“There.”
I cross the room in three quick strides and crouch, fingers sliding along the seam until they find cold metal beneath the edge.
A hidden latch.
Clean workmanship.
Permanent.
This wasn’t thrown together overnight.
Someone built this place carefully.
I grip the handle and pull.
The concealed hatch opens silently.
Darkness waits below.
A narrow staircase disappears underground, swallowed in black.
No sound drifts upward.
No movement.
Just stillness.
Ronan exhales slowly behind me. “You first or me?”
“I’ve got it.”
I descend without hesitation.
One careful step at a time.
Weapon steady.
Eyes adjusting slowly as dim emergency lighting comes into view below.
The underground space isn’t what I expected.
Not exactly a bunker.
Not exactly a server room.
Portable equipment lines the walls beside exposed wiring and half-packed storage crates. Folding tables have been turned into workstations covered in monitors, hard drives, and scattered notes.
Temporary.
Like someone’s been preparing to run.
Fast.
I clear the final step—
And see her.
She stands beside the central workstation, fingers braced against the edge of the table like she caught herself mid-motion.
Not calm.
Not composed.
Not the untouchable presence from the system.
Human.
Breathing too hard.
A loose strand of dark hair escaped the messy knot at the back of her head, brushing against pale skin. Her blue eyes lift instantly when I enter the room, locking onto mine with sharp, terrifying awareness.
And everything in my head goes silent for half a second.
Because she’s real.
Not code.
Not a ghost inside a machine.
A woman.
Alive.
Exhausted.
Dangerous.
My finger tightens slightly against the trigger guard.
But I don’t raise the weapon.
Don’t fire.
Don’t move.
Neither does she.
The silence stretches between us, thick with recalculation.
“You’re earlier than expected,” she says.
Her voice stays steady.
But strain edges underneath it.
I catch it immediately.
File it away.
“You gave me the address.”
A flicker crosses her face.
“I knew you would come.”
Not surprise.
Not exactly.
More like she still hadn’t fully believed I would.
“Yeah.”
Ronan descends behind me, weapon sweeping the room. “Jonah—”
“I see her.”
I never take my eyes off Sienna.
Not once.
Because she’s studying me just as carefully.
Measuring.
Weighing.
Trying to decide if she made a mistake.
“You’re Sienna Knox.”
Her chin lifts slightly.
“Yes.”
No hesitation.
No denial.
I step closer.
She stays exactly where she is.
But tension creeps visibly into her shoulders now, like her body is running on nothing except stubbornness and adrenaline.
“You rewrote ORACLE.”
A pause.
Then—
“Yes.”
Calm voice.
Controlled expression.
But her fingers curl tighter against the edge of the table.
Not unaffected.
Good.
That makes this real.
“They’re hunting you.”
“I know.”
“You let me find you.”
Another pause.
Longer this time.
“I did.”
The honesty lands harder than I expect.
No excuses.
No manipulation.
Just truth.
Which means this meeting wasn’t luck.
Or coincidence.
She chose me.
My jaw flexes.
“Why?”
For the first time since I entered the room, Sienna hesitates.
Tiny.
Almost impossible to catch.
But it’s there.
“Because you followed the pattern,” she says quietly. “You tried to understand it before you tried to destroy it.”
Her eyes hold mine.
Sharp and searching.
“And because you might actually survive what’s coming.”
Behind me, Ronan mutters, “Or he’s just dumb enough to walk straight into it.”
I ignore him.
My attention stays fixed on Sienna.
On the cracks showing beneath her control now that she’s standing in front of me instead of behind a screen.
My gaze drops briefly.
Her hand trembles against the table.
Small movement.
Barely noticeable.
But real.
She’s exhausted.
Pushing past empty.
Still standing anyway.
Something tightens unexpectedly in my chest.
“You should’ve told me,” I say.
Her brows pull together faintly. “Told you what?”
“That you were real.”
Something flickers in her expression then.
Not guilt.
Not regret.
Acceptance.
“I needed to know if you’d come.”
I stare at her for a long second.
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
Sharp.
Direct.
Unapologetic.
And somehow that honesty makes me trust her more.
Outside, thunder rumbles faintly through the mountains overhead.
Sienna glances briefly toward the ceiling.
“They’ll be here soon,” she says quieter now. “HELIOS monitors every breach point connected to ORACLE. They already know something’s wrong.”
“I figured.”
“You don’t have time to stand here deciding what to do.”
I almost laugh at that.
Because I already decided.
The second I saw her standing here alone and running herself into the ground.
I close the distance between us.
Close enough now to see exhaustion darkening beneath her eyes.
Close enough to see the moment her breathing changes.
“You’re coming with me.”
Her posture locks instantly.
“No.”
Immediate.
Firm.
Fear flashes behind it before she buries it again.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Yeah,” I say evenly. “You are.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I understand enough.”
I reach for her wrist.
Not rough.
Not hesitant either.
Warm skin meets my palm.
Real.
Not lines of code.
Not words on a screen.
Her.
Sienna’s breath catches softly at the contact.
“I’m not some extraction target you can fix and drag out of here,” she snaps.
I hold her gaze steadily.
“Good,” I say quietly. “Because I’m not trying to fix you.”
That stops her cold.
Just long enough.
“We’re leaving,” I continue. “You can walk beside me, or you can argue while I carry you. Those are the options.”
Her chest rises faster now as she searches my face for hesitation.
For uncertainty.
There isn’t any.
Not anymore.
“They’ll track us,” she whispers.
“Let them.”
“You don’t know what HELIOS is capable of.”
I step even closer.
Close enough that I see her pulse jump in her throat.
“Then they’re about to learn what I’m capable of.”
Silence hits hard between us.
Heavy.
Electric.
And for the first time since I met her—something in Sienna’s expression softens.
Tiny.
Fragile.
Trust.
Barely there.
But enough.
She exhales slowly.
“Fine.”
I don’t release her wrist.
Don’t step away.
Because she looks seconds from collapsing even if she refuses to admit it.
Ronan checks the stairwell above. “We’ve got movement outside. Maybe two minutes.”
“Then move.”
I guide Sienna forward.
Not dragging.
Not forcing.
But steadying her when her balance slips slightly on the first step.
She doesn’t pull away this time.
Together we climb the narrow staircase into darkness above.
Fast.
Controlled.
The moment we clear the hatch—
Gunfire explodes through the night outside.
Glass shatters across the far wall.
Ronan drops instantly behind cover. “Contact!”
I react without thought.
One arm wraps around Sienna as I pull her behind me, shielding her body with my own while bullets rip through the abandoned structure.
Her fingers tighten hard against my jacket.
Holding on.
“Stay behind me,” I order.
And this time—
She doesn’t argue.