Long-press a paragraph to send danmaku
"How do you know this token?" Sienna shoves the black metal disk closer to my face, her other hand pressing my wounded shoulder into the penthouse wall.
I can't hear her. Can't hear my own grunt of pain. But I read her lips, and I see the fury in those ice-blue eyes.
I yank out my phone. Type fast, blood soaking through my jacket.
*My sister wore one. Same mark. Six years ago.*
Sienna reads it. Her grip tightens.
"Sister?"
I nod. Type again.
*Mia Reese. Vanished May 2019. Last seen with someone who had your token.*
Sienna's face goes still. Not calm. Frozen. Like I just said the name of a ghost.
She pulls back, and I slide down the wall, shoulder screaming. She's pacing now, token in one hand, gun in the other. Her lips move fast. I catch fragments.
"...can't be... she wouldn't..."
I pound the floor with my good hand. She spins.
I type.
*You knew her.*
Sienna stares at the screen. Her jaw works. Finally she crouches in front of me, close enough I can smell gunpowder and something floral.
"I don't talk about her," she mouths slowly, deliberately. "Not to anyone."
*You'll talk to me. Or I let the next bullet hit you.*
Her eyes flash. "You just took a bullet for me."
*I need answers more than you need to live.*
She laughs. No sound, but I see it in the sharp exhale, the bitter twist of her mouth.
"You're insane."
*Where is she?*
Sienna stands, walks to the shattered window. Wind whips her hair. She's thinking. Weighing.
I type faster.
*The shooter's still out there. You're marked. I've seen this day before. You die at 6:47 PM unless I stop it. So talk. Or we both lose.*
She turns. Reads. Her expression shifts, something between disbelief and calculation.
"Prove it," she mouths.
I pull up my phone's timestamp. Show her the loop count I've been tracking in my notes app. First loop: 6:47 PM, penthouse, throat cut. Second loop: 6:47 PM, sniper, kitchen.
She reads it all. Her face doesn't change, but her hand with the token drops to her side.
"How?"
*Don't know. Don't care. Where's Mia?*
Sienna crosses back to me. Kneels. This time there's no hostility. Just exhaustion.
"I can't tell you where she is," she says slowly, making sure I catch every word. "Because I don't know."
I grab her wrist. She doesn't pull away.
*Liar.*
"She left the network six years ago. Walked out of a deal with half the intel and never surfaced again. I've been looking too."
*The token.*
"She left it behind. As insurance. Or a message. I never figured out which."
*What deal?*
Sienna's eyes go hard again. "The kind that gets you killed if you talk about it."
*You're dying today anyway.*
"Not if you're telling the truth."
I let go of her wrist. Type.
*Then help me. Tell me what she was into. Who wanted her gone. Give me something.*
Sienna stands, walks to a corner cabinet. Pulls out a first aid kit. Tosses it at me.
"Patch yourself. Then we talk."
I rip open the kit one-handed. Gauze, tape, antiseptic. She watches me struggle, then sighs and kneels again, taking the supplies.
Her hands are steady as she peels back my jacket. The bullet grazed deep, but didn't lodge. She pours antiseptic. I feel the burn, see my own breath hitch, but hear nothing.
She works fast. Wraps tight. Her fingers brush my collarbone and I feel the heat of her skin through the blood and adrenaline.
When she's done, she sits back on her heels.
"Your sister was a broker. Like me. She moved information between people who couldn't be seen together. High-value, high-risk."
I gesture at my ears, point to the phone.
She takes it. Types.
*Mia brokered a deal in 2019 between two parties. One of them was Marcus Lyle. My current business partner. The other was someone I never met. Mia kept that name locked. Said it was safer for everyone.*
My chest tightens.
*What was the deal?*
*Information exchange. Something that could bury both sides if it leaked. Mia was the vault. She held both pieces, delivered neither until she had both payments.*
*But she ran.*
*She ran. Took one half of the intel. Left the other half with me, encrypted. I can't open it without her code.*
I take the phone back.
*Show me.*
Sienna hesitates. Then stands, walks to the far wall. Presses a panel. It slides open. Inside is a small safe, old-school mechanical lock.
She spins the dial. Opens it. Pulls out a slim black drive.
"This," she says, holding it up. "Locked for six years."
I reach for it. She pulls it back.
"You want answers? Give me the code."
*I don't have it.*
"Then we're done."
*Wait.*
I think. Mia's habits. Her tells. She used to leave me breadcrumbs when we were kids, puzzles only I'd solve.
I type.
*Let me try something.*
Sienna narrows her eyes. Hands me the drive.
There's a keypad interface on the side. Eight digits.
I close my eyes. Remember Mia's last text before she vanished. A string of numbers I thought was a wrong-number message.
05142019
The date she disappeared.
I punch it in.
The drive blinks green.
Sienna's mouth falls open.
She grabs the drive, plugs it into a tablet on the coffee table. The screen fills with folders. She opens one.
Her face goes white.
"No."
I move beside her, read the screen.
It's a file directory. Dates, names, transaction records. And at the bottom, a video file.
Timestamp: Tomorrow's date. 8:00 AM.
Sienna clicks it.
The video loads. Mia's face fills the screen.
She looks older. Tired. Hair shorter than I remember.
"Sienna," Mia's recorded voice says. "If you're watching this, it means I'm out of time. Marcus knows what we did. He's coming for you. Don't trust Val—"
Sienna pauses the video. Looks at me.
I read Mia's frozen lips on the screen.
"Don't trust Val. Don't let her keep you alive today. If Sienna Graves survives May fourteenth, the deal breaks, and everyone dies."
Sienna's hand hovers over the tablet.
"Your sister," she says slowly, "just told me to let myself die."
I stare at the screen. At Mia's face. At the timestamp that says this video is dated for tomorrow, but Mia recorded it six years ago.
Sienna's fingers tighten on the tablet edge.
"What the hell did you drag me into?"
I don't have an answer.
The tablet screen flickers. A new file appears in the directory. Auto-generated.
Title: *VAULT_COORDINATES_ACTIVE.exe*
Sienna clicks it.
A map loads. Downtown. An address I don't recognize. Below it, a single line of text.
*Lower vault accessible May 14, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM only. No art inside. Bring the blonde.*
Sienna looks at me. "That's in three hours."
I nod.
She stands, paces. Her lips move fast, words I can't catch.
Then she stops. Turns.
"If I go to that vault, I die. Your sister made that clear."
*If you don't go, you die anyway. I've seen it twice.*
"And if we both go?"
*Then maybe we find out why she wanted you dead.*
Sienna picks up her gun. Checks the clip.
"You're asking me to walk into a trap."
*I'm asking you to trust me for three more hours.*
"Trust the sister of the woman who just told me to die?"
I stand, shoulder screaming. Step close. Take the gun from her hand. She tenses but doesn't stop me.
I eject the clip. Slide it across the floor. Hand her back the empty gun.
*I took a bullet for you. I gave you the code. Now I'm giving you the choice. Vault or death. Pick one.*
Sienna stares at the empty gun. At me. At the tablet still glowing with Mia's frozen face.
She exhales. Nods.
"Fine. We go. But if your sister's waiting there with Marcus—"
I don't let her finish. I take the tablet, screenshot the vault address, and send it to Juno with a single message: *If I don't text you by 7 PM, send this to every cop in the city.*
Sienna watches me do it. A tiny smile cracks her face.
"Paranoid."
*Alive.*
"For now."
She walks to the bedroom. Comes back with a black tactical jacket, spare clips, and a knife.
Tosses the knife to me.
"You're terrible at getting shot. Try not to this time."
I catch it. Slide it into my belt.
She grabs her keys. Looks at the clock. 3:12 PM.
"We leave in ten. I need to make a call first."
I frown. Point at the phone. *Who?*
"Someone who might know what your sister locked in that vault."
*Who?*
Sienna's smile vanishes.
"The person Mia stole from."
She walks to the balcony. Dials. I watch her lips move, but can't make out the words.
When she hangs up, her face is unreadable.
"They'll meet us there. 6:30."
*Who is it?*
Sienna looks at me for a long moment.
"The other half of the deal. The one Marcus never knew about."
She turns toward the door.
I grab her arm. She stops.
*Name.*
Sienna pulls free. Doesn't look back.
"You'll find out when they show up. And Val?"
I wait.
"If they recognize you, run."