Saira’s pulse thundered in her ears. Her eyes darted between the agents, calculating angles, distance—anything that might give her an advantage. But she found none. The walls had closed in before she’d even realized what had happened.
"This isn’t possible!" Saira shrieked, her voice high and trembling, eyes wide with disbelief. She stord a step forward, pointing a shaking finger toward lanie. "No one else knew! No one! I planned every step—I burned every file, erased every trace! This was mine! Only I knew the location! Only !" Her breath hitched as rage and panic twisted together inside her chest at the thought of losing him. "How the hell did you find ?!"
And then, in one sharp, sudden movent, she lunged toward lanie. Only one thought in her mind... If lanie was gone, Adam would be hers. She knew she might not be able to kill her but she was desperate. If nothing else, she could harm the bitch’s smug face.
She got no more than two steps before three officers closed in. One grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. Another shoved her down to her knees with the cold barrel of a gun pressed lightly against the back of her neck.
"Let go! I have to kill her!"
But the officer would not let her move and Saira could only struggle as she spat, "You think you’re so clever. This place—it was scrubbed. There were no records. No digital trail. How did you find so soon?"
It was not lanie who answered but another man as she stared at him with crazed eyes,"Because you made one mistake. You assud Adam wouldn’t have done anything to protect himself."
Saira froze.
Who was this man? She was sure she had seen him sowhere.... but where? And why did he look so dangerous?
She hadn’t even realized he was there.
"What are you talking about?" she asked slowly. Adam had been unconscious. How could he have...
Max stepped closer, and held up a small device in his hand. "Adam has a subdermal implant embedded in his body. Almost impossible to detect without a scan. It activated in the hospital first. Then the airport and then right here.
Saira blinked. "No... no, that’s not possible. This is not so movie..."
Max gave a small shrug. "You would’ve missed it unless you knew exactly where to look. And unless Adam deactivated it, it would stay dormant—except under the right conditions."
He paused, letting the silence press against her like weight.
"At the airport," he continued, "when you were in that tiny airfield, there must have been a mont just a flicker, when Adam stirred. Maybe a twitch of consciousness. It created a brief electromagnetic pulse—small, but enough. The chip picked up the signal and pinged us."
Saira stared, horrified. Her lips parted, but no words ca out.
Max held up the device. "We’d been listening for it. Just in case."
"You’re lying," she whispered.
"We weren’t sure at first," he continued, undeterred. "The signal was weak. But it was there. So we traced it. We reviewed flight plans filed within the last three hours- especially from Maniwa. Not many options."
lanie stepped closer now, and smiled. "And once we landed in this region, we contacted local services. It didn’t take long. One nurse flagged a report—she was suspicious of a dical patient flown in under tight security, with a woman who refused to give her real na."
Max nodded. "So we acted fast. We gave the paradics new orders—separate you. Redirect your ambulance. Buy ti""
lanie’s eyes glead. "And here we are."
Saira staggered back a step, the explanation crashing over her like a wave. She had been so sure. So confident. She’d checked Adam herself. She’d changed their identities. Filed fake dical records. Bought a new SIM under a dead na. Even Spencer—he didn’t know about this.
"No one knew," she said aloud, as if by saying it, she could undo the reality pressing in around her. "No one but ." Saira clenched her fists. "You had no right—"
lanie cut her off. "You had no right. You made a deal with Collins. You disappeared with a man making the world believe that he was dead. You set up for his murder, faked your own death, and burned every bridge to buy your freedom. But you still failed in this, didn’t you?
Saira’s voice broke. "You don’t understand."
"I do, Saira. I do. But that does not an I will let you get away with it. You had your chance with Adam and you it gave it up."
Saira’s eyes darted wildly, her whole body trembling with adrenaline and disbelief. The room—the agents, the guns, the quiet judgnt on every face—began to blur around the edges. Her mind couldn’t hold it all at once. Everything she had built, everything she had risked—had co undone in a matter of minutes.
Her voice cracked, desperate and rising. "Where is he?" she shouted, her head whipping toward lanie. "Where’s Adam? What have you done with him?!"
lanie t her gaze without flinching, the calm in her voice like a slap. "He’s with ."
Saira froze. For a beat, her mind seed to go utterly still.
Then—
With a guttural scream, she lunged again, this ti catching lanie off guard. Her hands clawed at her, fingers tangling in lanie’s dark hair as she tried to drag her down, her face twisted in a snarl. "He’s mine! He was mine! You lying bitch—you took him from !"
The room erupted into movent.
Two agents surged forward and yanked her back. Saira thrashed violently, her boots skidding against the hardwood floor as she shrieked like a wild animal. Her hair was half-fallen from its bun, eyes bloodshot and wide, spit flying from her lips as she fought.
"You don’t get to have him! You don’t get to take him!"
Her whole body heaved with the effort of screaming, of resisting, of refusing to accept the end. " I will not let you take him! If I go down, I will take you with !"
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