They turned a corner, and she dropped down to her knees. One of the guards shouted, "What the hell?" She let out a loud, fake scream that echoed down the hall. As the guard bent down to check on her, she snuck a blade from the cuff of her pants and slashed upwards at him. Blood began to trickle down from his neck.
Before the second guard could even react, she kicked the baton lying on the ground right into his ribs, jumped up, grabbed his stun rod, and shoved it straight into his chest.
He convulsed and collapsed. Breathing heavily, she said, "You really should’ve double-tied those cuffs."
The entire base went into lockdown mode, and she went missing. Her escape was underway, and Sector Six was put on high alert.
Selina grabbed Alpha’s arm and said, "She’s in the tunnels."
Alpha growled, "No. She’s already outside."
They can’t see anything; their CCTV has frozen due to what just happened earlier. His tech team is doing their best to restore everything and stop the live broadcast, but they are struggling. No matter what they do, the live broadcast continues to run.
anwhile, outside, Lunel sprinted down the tarmac, barefoot and bloodied, her teeth clenched against the cold biting at her skin. She spotted two guards near a smaller exit vehicle, not the jet, and ducked behind so fuel barrels. She took a deep breath, one breath, two.
Then she surged forward, throwing the shock baton like a spear, striking one guard. The second guard turned but was too late; Lunel had already grabbed the first guard’s sidearm. She pulled the gun tucked in the guard’s waist and fired two shots. Everything went silent.
She checked both guards and found the keys in the second guard’s pocket. Limping toward the SUV, she noticed the gate was open.
And then she vanished into the night.
******
They were standing on the runway, feeling the tension as the live video feed from the SUV suddenly went dark. She must take out the cara or sothing.
Alpha, looking worried, asked, "Do you know what she’s going to do next?"
Selina swallowed hard. "She’ll just kill us."
Alpha ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. "No, it’s worse than that. She’ll expose our secrets so well that we’ll wish she had killed us rather than exposing our secrets."
Selina gaped at him in shock. "What? Didn’t she already expose us?"
Alpha shot back, his voice filled with irritation, "She’s got sothing we don’t know about. She knows sothing important, and I could see it in her eyes."
******
She bled into the leather seat of the SUV, feeling cold but keeping her eyes sharp. The streets of Manhattan were still waking up, wrapped in a thick layer of fog. Horns honked in the distance like so kind of war drumbeat. With one hand on the steering wheel, she hacked into the SUV’s system, rerouted the GPS, changed the license plate info, and turned off the tracking module.
"System ghosted," she muttered, glancing at the screen. "No more hiding. This ti, I’ll disappear on my own terms." Her fingers shook a bit from blood loss; she really needed a safe spot, and fast.
She pulled over into a deserted alley that looked like it hadn’t seen life in years, with paint peeling off the brick walls and rusty steel shutters. Behind a green dumpster and under a code-locked door that said "M-4B" was one of her secret hideouts, a place she had set up three years ago when she joined GhostNet. There were no digital breadcrumbs here, no ownership papers, just a bunch of fake identities scattered across six countries.
Once inside, the lights buzzed to life, casting a dim glow. She yanked off the hoodie she’d been wearing for almost a week, revealing tired skin. She opened a hidden panel behind a ssy tangle of wires and found a cabinet filled with bandages, burner phones, and passports from Germany, Belgium, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Alongside those were Visa cards, SIM packs, hair dye, makeup, and a loaded pistol.
She cleaned the bullet graze, gritting her teeth against the pain as she wrapped it up with steady hands. Even though her eyes were hazy with discomfort, she didn’t stop.
After taking care of her leg wound, she switched into so plain black jeans, a fitted turtleneck, and comfy white sneakers. She took off the black wig, tying her long, wavy, light brown hair into a tight bun, and took off her black contact lenses.
With a bit of makeup, she covered the bruises using a scar-concealing cream that made most of the marks disappear.
In a small duffle bag, she packed a few changes of clothes, her light sneakers and sturdy boots, a portable SSD and a hacking drive, cash, a burner laptop, a Turkish passport, and a silver half-moon locket that her mom used to wear, the only piece of her heart that she still had. After zipping the bag, she checked her reflection. The hunted hacker was gone; now there was just a new ghost ready to start fresh.
She securely locked the door and stepped back into the SUV. After placing her bag carefully on the seat beside her, she headed toward Astoria, a quieter transfer point that was less monitored than Grand Central or Midtown.
A few blocks from a yellow taxi depot, she abandoned the SUV, using a stolen FOB key to lock it and erase its system.
With a casual expression, she flagged down a cab.
The cab driver said politely, "Good morning, ma’am. Where to?"
Lunel replied softly, with a smile on her face, "International Airport."
After an hour, she arrived at the airport. She stepped out of the cab, handed the driver the fare along with a tip, and he smiled, saying, "Thanks." She returned his smile as the cab drove away, disappearing among the other vehicles.
Passing through security, she wore a smile on her face.
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