The city hadn't slept in days.

Ash stood on the rooftop of an abandoned parking tower, the sky painted in a cold violet before dawn. The metallic chill of early morning clung to his coat as if trying to freeze time itself. His eyes scanned the city skyline. Beneath the concrete and neon, something was brewing—he could feel it. Ever since the escape from the cryo-lab, silence had surrounded Solomon’s name. But silence wasn’t peace. It was strategy.

Behind him, Rika sat on a ledge, a pair of bruised binoculars resting in her lap. She looked pale, exhausted, but not defeated.

“Are you sure this is the place?” she asked without turning around.

Ash gave a faint nod. “I’ve followed the pattern. All the disappearances in the last ten days trace back to this district. Someone’s collecting people.”

“Like before?”

“No. This time it’s more selective.” He paused, watching the traffic below. “They’re only taking scientists. Engineers. Coders. People who can build things.”

Rika's brow furrowed. “Build what?”

Ash tapped a worn photo he had pinned to his notebook. A symbol—an unfinished hexagram with the letters RZ-V etched beneath it. The same marking they found inside the cryo-chamber. The same marking branded into the hidden file Solomon had tried to erase.

“They’re building the next version,” Ash said quietly. “Of him.”

---

Two Nights Earlier

The underground hideout had gone completely dark.

Rika, shivering under a flickering heater, looked over the blood-smeared schematics they had stolen from the lab. It was more than just a vault of cryogenic tech. It was a blueprint for an artificial mind—someone enhanced, programmable, and yet… alive. The child they had found was just the prototype. More were coming.

“This is too much,” Rika whispered. “They’re designing soldiers.”

Ash leaned against the wall, chewing thoughtfully on a dried fig. “Not soldiers. Puppets with free will. That’s worse.”

They had argued that night. She had wanted to alert the international defense council. He refused—said too many channels were already compromised.

“We’re going to need allies,” she had said.

“We’re going to need ghosts,” he replied.

---

Present Day — Rooftop Meeting

A low hum from his earpiece interrupted the silence.

“Ash,” said a familiar voice. It was Theo, one of his oldest contacts—half hacker, half myth. “You’re not going to like this. There’s been another breach. Northern Arc labs. Four more scientists taken. Clean sweep. No alarms. No security footage. It’s like they vanished in smoke.”

Ash’s jaw tightened. “That makes eight in three days.”

“Ten,” Theo corrected. “You missed the ones from Kyoto.”

Ash sighed. “Did they leave a mark?”

Theo’s voice dropped. “Yeah. RZ-V. Same as before.”

Ash turned toward Rika. “They’re accelerating.”

---

Later That Night — Backstreet Warehouse

Ash and Rika moved quietly through the shadows of an old shipping yard. They had tracked one of the missing scientist’s devices to a nearby signal. The warehouse looked abandoned, but Ash had learned not to trust appearances. He stopped near a rusted container door.

“Rika, signal jammer,” he whispered.

She handed him the small cube. He activated it and tossed it inside. Instantly, any hidden security or surveillance signals within a 50-meter radius were silenced.

They stepped inside.

Rows of unmarked crates filled the space, stacked high to the ceiling. The air smelled of dust, cold metal, and something sterile.

Ash lifted the lid on one of the crates.

Inside: helmets, breathing units, and thin metallic suits. RZ-V branded tech.

“These aren’t weapons,” Rika said, inspecting a glove. “These are... suits for something. Maybe space?”

Ash narrowed his eyes. “Not space. Isolation.” He tapped a barcode on the inside of the suit. “They're trying to create a controlled field environment.”

“For what?”

Before Ash could answer, a click echoed from the far side of the warehouse.

“Don’t move.”

The voice was cold. Unfamiliar.

A man stepped out of the darkness, flanked by two heavily armed guards. His eyes were sharp, calculating. But it wasn’t his face Ash noticed first—it was the medallion he wore.

The same one Solomon wore in the photo files.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the man said. “But I suppose it’s time we met.”

“Who are you?” Rika asked, her voice steady.

“A witness,” he said simply. “To the new order.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “You’re one of his lieutenants.”

The man smiled faintly. “No. I’m his brother.”

---

Escape

Everything went to hell in seconds.

Ash lunged for Rika, pulling her back as bullets sprayed into the crates. Explosions of smoke and light disoriented the guards. In the chaos, Ash threw a flash pellet to the ground and ran.

They fled through the narrow delivery corridor behind the warehouse, guards chasing after them. Gunfire ricocheted off the walls. Ash turned sharply and threw a capsule behind him—instantly, the hall filled with thick, blinding mist.

They escaped into the city tunnels below.

---

Safehouse

Later that night, they returned to one of Ash’s fallback locations—a decaying apartment with walls that remembered better days. Rika lay on the floor, breathing heavily.

Ash poured water into a chipped mug and handed it to her.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded slowly. “He said he’s Solomon’s brother.”

Ash sat down beside her, the city sirens faint in the distance. “That means the Order wasn’t built alone. There's more of them. Maybe family. Maybe clones. I don’t know.”

“Then what do we do?”

He looked at her with tired eyes.

“We vanish again. Follow the ones who vanish.”

---

Three Days Later — Montenegro

Ash had traveled alone this time. The trail led him to an offshore archive under the guise of a medical lab. But what he found was something else.

Files—thousands of them—coded under one word: Inheritance.

Inside the database were names. Timelines. Blood types. Medical histories. Locations of children.

Every one of them matched the genetic blueprint of the boy they rescued.

They were building more.

But this time... not just for control. For replacement.

---

Final Scene — Rooftop

Back in the city, Rika watched the news feed flicker in the window of a store below.

BREAKING NEWS: Defense Chief Resigns Amid Allegations of Hidden Genetic Programs.

She looked up at the sky.

Ash stepped beside her, coat fluttering in the wind.

“They’re trying to erase the old world,” he said. “One whisper at a time.”

Rika didn’t reply for a long time.

Then she said, “Then we have to be the noise.”

Ash smiled faintly. The storm was far from over.

But they were ready now.