Chapter 28 The Shadows Burn the Lie #2
“Anger makes you brave,” he said, and the words were a confession disguised as an observation.
Her mouth parted slightly, like she hadn’t expected him to notice the tremor in her fury. “Don’t romanticize it.”
Roman’s grip tightened on the gun. “I’m not.”
Ava leaned in, her forehead almost touching his shoulder. The command floor’s red light turned her eyes darker, deeper. “I’m not afraid of dying, Roman. I’m afraid of living long enough to watch you sacrifice yourself for me again.”
The air shifted around them, thick with the kind of silence that precedes violence.
Roman’s chest ached. He didn’t let it show. “You’re not mine to sacrifice.”
Ava’s laugh was soft and pained. “No. You’re not mine either. But we’re in this together.”
The breach alarms screamed - two seconds before the doors could fully seal. A panel above the console lit with a new message: EXTERNAL OVERRIDE - UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
Roman’s body moved on instinct. He kicked the console’s side panel open, exposing wiring he had no right to touch without tearing the entire system apart. The heat from the metal burned his palm through his glove.
Ava inhaled sharply. “Roman - ”
“Stay behind me,” he ordered, and the command was for her safety even as he hated the distance it forced.
He jammed the forbidden channel authorization into the hidden port, fingers slick with sweat and the sting of heat. The console flickered.
Ava’s voice dropped, intimate and fierce. “If you do this and I get hurt because of it, I’ll blame you.”
Roman glanced at her, and something in his expression must have softened because her eyes widened a fraction - like she hadn’t expected his compliance to feel like a promise.
“Good,” he said. “Then you’ll remember I chose you while they tried to use you.”
The console beeped. The fan in the vents cut out. The sweet chemical smell thinned, replaced by cold air that tasted cleaner - like they’d just prevented something worse.
The external override message changed again: TRANSFER ROUTE REDIRECTED - ENZO HOLDING NODE.
Ava exhaled, and Roman felt her weight shift closer to him. “You did it.”
Roman’s mind didn’t celebrate. It counted. “It didn’t stop the mechanism. It moved it.”
The doors rattled again - violent now. Not a breach yet, but a promise of one. Roman’s gaze snapped to the console screen. A new line appeared beneath the redirected route, blinking like a heartbeat.
ACTIVATION CONFIRMED - LAST MESSAGE RECEIVED.
Ava stiffened. “Last message?”
Roman read the text that followed, and the words made his skin go tight.
SUBJECT: COMMAND FLOOR. SUBJECT: AVA COLLINS. SUBJECT: ENZO. FINAL STEP: BURN THE LIE.
Roman’s throat tightened around the meaning. “They’re not just transferring. They’re branding the narrative.”
Ava’s eyes flashed. “They want Enzo to believe - ”
“That Roman broke,” Roman finished, voice flat with fury. “That the truth was staged. That my vow was a performance.”
Ava stepped closer despite his warning signals - despite the way the command floor’s alarms were still screaming. She lifted her chin, refusing to be reduced to a target. “Then you’ll make sure the lie burns on them.”
Roman turned his head toward her, and the danger in the room sharpened into something intimate - something earned. “Stay close.”
Ava’s lips parted. “Roman.”
He touched her cheek with the back of his knuckles, just once, grounding her before the next impact. “I won’t let them use you to set anyone else on fire.”
Ava’s eyes held his, and the fear there changed shape - into resolve. “Then let me help you.”
The command floor lights flickered, the red stuttered, and the console displayed one more message:
COURTESY NOTICE - RETALIATION WINDOW: OPEN.
Outside the sealed doors, footsteps hit concrete in a rhythm too practiced to be random. Someone was coming in with purpose - someone who believed Roman’s override bought them time, not salvation.
Roman lifted his gun higher and felt the weight of Ava’s folder - her ledger - somewhere nearby, protected but not yet secure enough. He didn’t know where every copy sat in the system now. He only knew the syndicate’s last message had been meant for Enzo’s next phase.
And if they could trigger a narrative burn on Enzo, they could do it to anyone who mattered.
Roman leaned toward Ava, voice low enough to belong only to her. “When they breach, you’re not filing. You’re not broadcasting. You’re staying alive and you’re staying useful.”
Ava’s eyes narrowed. “Useful to you.”
Roman’s expression didn’t soften. “Useful to the truth.”
The breach alarms shifted from warning to imminent. The doors strained with a heavy, metallic groan.
Ava didn’t back away. She threaded her fingers through his, gripping him like a promise. “Then don’t you dare treat me like something you can shield until the danger passes.”
Roman stared at their joined hands as the doors began to give. His mind flashed to Enzo - what they’d try to do through this evidence chain, through this narrative, through this lie they wanted burned into the public record.
When the doors finally shattered, Roman would have to fight the syndicate and the story they were building - at the same time.
He met Ava’s eyes through the red light and the chemical ghosts still lingering in the air.
“Keep your seal on your evidence,” he said. “Because tonight, it’s going to mean more than proof.”
Ava’s mouth curved, sharp and trembling all at once. “Tonight, it’s going to mean leverage.”
The first impact hit the doorframe - hard enough to rattle Roman’s bones.
And the console, still blinking, counted down the activation window - starting again, as if someone had planted a second fuse meant for Enzo the moment this one failed.