The stairwell was too dangerous.
The hallway might be watched.
Then she saw the ventilation duct.
It took a chair, a stolen pen, scraped fingers, and every ounce of courage she had to unscrew the grate and pull herself into the narrow metal passage.
The duct was hot, dusty, and claustrophobic.
She crawled forward on elbows and knees, following airflow and distant voices. Twice she nearly cried. Once she whispered Helena’s name. But she kept going.
Finally, through a grate below, she saw Marco’s crisis room.
He was there with Olivia, Victor, and others, arguing over failing systems.
Kiara banged on the metal.
Everyone looked up.
Victor reached for his weapon.
“It’s me!” she shouted. “Kiara! I’m in the duct!”
They pulled her down minutes later, dusty, shaken, holding the stolen device like a sacred object.
“They’re stealing Aurora,” she said. “Luca, Alan, and Pietro. Pietro too. They’re starting something called Delta Sequence.”
Olivia plugged in the drive.
Her face went white.
“It has partial Aurora architecture. She stopped the transfer.”
Then the lights flickered.
Screens flashed red.
“It’s starting,” Olivia said. “Massive intrusion. They’re attacking multiple systems.”
Victor returned with worse news.
“Fiona is missing.”
Kiara’s face drained of color.
“I left her waiting.”
Marco placed a hand on her shoulder.
“No blame right now. Focus.”
The building began turning against them.
Elevators froze. Doors locked. Cameras failed. Fire alarms chirped, then died. Computer screens went dark one by one. Delta Sequence was not just a hack. It was an attempt to blind the tower long enough for Luca and Pietro to escape with what they had stolen and possibly take Fiona as leverage.
Marco moved to a private console.
“I built Aurora,” he said quietly. “But I also built something nobody else knows about.”
He typed a phrase.
Aurora Alpha.
Then a second password, spoken in a language Kiara did not recognize.
The lights stabilized.
A hidden backup system came alive.
On the wall screen, the tower map appeared with three moving red points.
Luca.
Pietro.
Fiona.
Basement three.
Emergency tunnel.
“Move,” Marco said.
Victor’s team moved faster.
Fifteen minutes later, the crisis room doors opened.
Security escorted Luca and Pietro in handcuffs. Alan had already been detained. Behind them walked Fiona, pale and shaking but alive.
Kiara ran to her.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
Fiona hugged her tightly.
“You reckless, brilliant child. Don’t ever do that again.”
“I won’t.”
Everyone in the room knew she probably would if the right thing demanded it.
Police arrived. Servers were secured. Aurora remained incomplete in enemy hands, which meant safe enough to survive. Solon Corporation denied involvement before anyone publicly accused them, which Marco found telling.