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The footsteps behind me were quiet enough that I did not hear him until he was close. I did not turn. The shock was wearing down, and in its place, grief was surfacing. My throat tightened. I pressed my lips together and kept my eyes on the whiteboard. If I looked at him, I wasn’t certain I could hold myself together.

We stood in the wet and dim light for a long time without speaking.

I swallowed once before I trusted my voice. “We’ll begin again.”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

I looked out the window toward Manhattan.

We will begin again.

* * *

Alexander

I was already uneasy before the fire.

That morning, Marcus had traced the three failed login attempts to an obsolete network route, part of the infrastructure once used by Project Helix. He told me at eleven o’clock. I went back to my conversation with Emilia.

I was coming back from the Opera House when I saw smoke rising from the Research Pavilion and the evacuation underway. I broke into a run. By the time I arrived at the main doors, Emilia was walking out. I exhaled in relief. Before I had even let it out, I saw Emilia turn toward the building.

I knew what she intended a second before she moved.

“Emilia.”

I was just one step behind her. I saw her run up the stairs through the smoke and followed her straight into the lab. I found her trying to move Priya toward the door. I had to get them out. I led them toward the safest stairway. We moved.

On the terrace, I put a blanket around her shoulders and rested my hand against her back. When she leaned into my hand, some of the tension I had been holding finally released. She looked at me and nodded once. She was all right.

She had been safe, and then she chose to go back. I understood why. That did nothing to make the choice easier to accept.

Once the medical staff reached her, I stepped away. I had to catch my breath. I had to get my thoughts in order. I had built Blackwood to be safe, and now, when it mattered most, I felt it slipping from my hands. At eleven o’clock, I had been given another reason not to dismiss the security anomalies. Two hours later, Emilia had run into a burning building. Whatever came next, I would act sooner.

Marcus approached after speaking with the fire inspector. There were questions about whether the electrical fault fully explained what had happened.

Aurora’s advantage had gone from unexplained to reproducible the day before. Now a fire had started in the section of the laboratory where its physical materials were stored. Someone had already moved through the research wing without appearing on our cameras. And that morning, I had learned the route used in the earlier intrusion belonged to Helix-era infrastructure.

None of it proved the fire was deliberate. I was no longer willing to dismiss the possibility.

Safety and security had failed in the one way that mattered. Equipment could be replaced. Emilia and Priya could not.

“Get me everything,” I said. “I want the panel out of the wall and looked at by our own people. The access logs. Every second of footage, including from the front gates. Go back to the morning Dr. Rossi’s office was entered. I want to know everywhere that person could have gone while the cameras were compromised.”

Marcus nodded.

I had spent weeks asking whether the incidents surrounding Aurora were connected. After today, I could no longer afford to assume they weren’t.

My thoughts returned to Emilia standing in the damaged laboratory.

“We’ll begin again.”

She would. I would make certain she had everything she needed to do it. And this time, I would not wait for danger to reach her before I acted.

Chapter 15

Emilia

The morning was clear, but the grounds were wet from dew as I walked toward the lab.