Location: Bruce Family Home, New Orleans
Time: 9:38 p.m.
The silence wasn't peaceful. It was weaponized.
Ryan Bruce stood at the basement terminal, fingers flying across the analog keyboard like it was 1997 and the internet could still be trusted. The flickering monitor hummed, each line of code dragging his pulse with it.
Emily watched from the corner, a pistol in one hand, her other clutching Faith's shoulder as the little girl, now fully awake, blinked up at the chaos around her.
"It's not just us," Ryan muttered. "This countdown—it's tethered to Site Phoenix."
Emily stiffened. "That's a graveyard. We watched it burn."
Ryan shook his head. "ONYX never burns anything to the ground. They bury it. And sometimes, things crawl back out."
9:41 p.m. – Emergency Cache Point: Garage Wall
A creak of drywall revealed a secret compartment. Out came duffels stuffed with ammo, hard drives, signal jammers, two emergency burner phones, and a thermos of black coffee labeled In Case of Armageddon.
Emily tossed Ryan his combat vest. "Still warm. That's comforting."
"We leave in ten. Tunnel out back. No digital trails. We go analog all the way."
9:45 p.m. – Signal Disruption Detected
A stuttering whine shrieked through the house's vent system.
Then static. Then nothing.
Then footsteps.
Ryan dropped the duffel and drew his sidearm. Emily motioned the girls into the wall panel safe chute that led to the old storm drain exit.
Faith hugged her frog tight. Holly asked, "Is it him? The bad version?"
Ryan kissed her forehead. "Not yet. But his friends are here."
9:47 p.m. – Home Invasion
The kitchen window exploded.
Shards scattered like teeth across tile.
Ryan tackled one intruder with a fireplace poker to the neck. Emily, flanking from the pantry, disabled another with a taser pan combo so vicious even the fridge made a sound of respect.
These weren't mafia soldiers. These were cleaner, sharper, eerily inhuman.
"Frayborn tech," Ryan said. "Modified. Reclaimed. V.0's style."
One assailant hissed a garbled voice loop: "You are outdated. Redundant."
"Try me in a decade," Ryan growled, snapping its neck.
9:56 p.m. – Family Escape Route: Storm Drain Egress
The girls crawled through the tunnel. Ryan and Emily followed, Emily shooting one last time toward the crumbling dining room.
Behind them, the house sparked, lit with silent explosions of static. Devices burst in synchronized defiance. The home they'd built was being unbuilt.
10:03 p.m. – Mobile Uplink Location: Louisiana Bayou Edge
An old ONYX supply van waited under camouflage netting.
Ryan activated a backup uplink—analog satellite connection.
Signal acquired.
He pinged a last known ONYX CORE node. A single message returned:
[Site Phoenix: Unsealed. Countdown Active. All agents presumed dead.]
Emily read it. "So that's where we're going."
Ryan looked toward the van, then at his daughters. "I go first. You follow if I don't come back."
Emily grabbed his arm. "You come back."
10:10 p.m. – Unknown Location: Surveillance Room
Bella Castini watched the feed—the Bruce house collapsing into digital rot.
Behind her, the air shifted.
A shadow stepped into the light.
Don Castini. Very much alive. Scarred. Older. Eyes burning like cigars.
He lit one.
"Let the clone have his fun," he rasped. "When he's done breaking your toy soldiers, we'll collect the ashes."
Bella didn't look at him. Her eyes were locked on Ryan.
"He's not breaking," she said. "He's evolving."
10:12 p.m. – Final Frame
Ryan stood at the front of the van. The countdown on his wrist display ticked past 47:00:00.
He whispered, "If he wants to come home... then I'll be waiting at the door."
(TO BE CONTINUED...)