The night was restless within the walls of AeroGallacianSpace. The revelations from Dr. Adrian had shaken Cynthia to her core—Vincent Kane, once their greatest threat, was nothing more than a pawn in a much larger game. The real mastermind was still lurking in the shadows, orchestrating every move with unnerving precision.
Cynthia stood in the dimly lit lab, her fingers gripping the edge of the console as she reviewed the encrypted messages they had uncovered. Lena sat beside her, exhaustion evident in her eyes, but neither of them could afford to rest. Not now.
"This transmission…" Lena murmured, pointing to a fragmented data stream on the screen. "It's not coming from Kane's network. It's from someone else—someone deeper in the system."
Cynthia exhaled sharply. "Then we were wrong to think this ended with him."
Behind them, Marla entered, her presence as sharp as ever. "You were never wrong, Cynthia. Just… misled." She pulled up a secondary screen, decrypting a portion of the code. "And whoever did the misleading wanted you looking in the wrong direction for as long as possible."
Prometheus crossed his arms. "So, if Kane was a distraction, then who's pulling the strings?"
Dr. Adrian's voice cut through the room as he stepped forward from the shadows. "The one we should have been looking at from the beginning." He placed a tablet on the desk, displaying a name that sent a chill through Cynthia's spine.
The name wasn't Vincent Kane.
It was someone far more entrenched in their world. Someone who had watched them, guided them, and manipulated every step of their journey without them even realizing it.
A name they never expected.
Lena's breath hitched. "No… That's impossible."
Cynthia's mind raced, the weight of the truth settling over her like a crushing force. If this was true, then everything they had believed was a lie.
And the real battle was only beginning.