The city went about its usual life: somewhere cars hummed, somewhere advertising panels flashed, somewhere warm yellow lights flickered in the windows of high-rises. But for them, all of it existed as if behind glass.
They walked in silence.
Each lost in their own thoughts.
Ethan about Maria.
Flash about how to get rid of all these vampires.
Bruno about how many rounds they could carry.
Gideon about whether his body could handle one more night (he had stayed behind in the hangar, watching over everything from a distance).
They were almost at the car when Flash's phone gave a short buzz.
Bzz-zz-zz!
A call and a message at the same time.
Flash stopped.
He pulled out the phone.
The screen lit his face with cold blue light.
He frowned.
"What?" Bruno asked.
Flash didn't answer right away.
He quickly opened the secure app, the one he'd used to dump the logs from Maria's chip.
The screen loaded. Lines of code. Timestamps. Encrypted blocks.
And suddenly, a new line.
As if it hadn't been there before.
Flash froze.
His shoulders tensed.
"What is it?" Ethan asked quietly.
Flash read it out slowly:
"'Meet me at the bar "Three Guys". Contact: A. Don't be late — you're not in a hurry anyway, I know something you don't…'"
Silence.
The city roared somewhere far away, but right there between them, it became too quiet.
Ethan took a step closer.
"This… the last message?"
Flash nodded.
"By the timestamp, yes. Sent a few hours before we left."
Gideon exhaled softly.
"So… she's the one?"
Bruno frowned.
"Contact… A."
Flash said slowly:
"Anna."
Ethan looked at him.
"You think?"
Flash's anger flared even hotter.
"Damn it, she's the rat. She already knew about us the second we tried to get into the files. She was collecting intel and apparently working with Maria.
She's running against Corvin in the election, but for some fucking reason she sent drones, a hunter, and her own guys after us?"
Bruno gave a weak smile; Gideon even laughed through a cough, listening via the earpiece.
"Too many coincidences," Gideon rasped.
Flash closed his eyes for a second. Then nodded.
"Makes sense."
He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
"Then the plan changes."
Bruno tensed.
"We're not going to the lab?"
"On foot," Flash said.
"But first we're visiting that bar."
The guys moved through the night city smoothly, almost soundlessly.
Neon signs reflected in the wet asphalt. People on the streets laughed, drank, smoked, argued, completely unaware that somewhere beneath their feet experiments were stored that could change everything.
Ethan watched cars slide past in the windows.
And thought:
She really worked with Anna? She knew she might not come back. And she still worked with her.
"What if it's a trap?" Gideon asked quietly through the earpiece.
Flash answered immediately:
"Then we'll find out."
"Super," Bruno muttered with heavy irony.
They reached the bar anyway.
"Three Guys."
The name flashed through Ethan's mind.
"Isn't this a gay bar?" Ethan raised his eyes.
"No," Flash said without hesitation.
Bruno shot the bar the most judgmental look he could muster.
"Why not?" he asked.
Flash paused for a moment, then added:
"Because there's no guy out front sucking off another one, and over in the corner there's a man and a woman trying very hard not to make any noise… put the puzzle together."
The bar's sign glowed with dim purple neon. A few letters had burned out, so the word looked more like "TYS."
Music throbbed dully through the walls, slow, thick bass like a pulse.
Flash pushed the door open.
"No sudden moves.
No heroics.
We listen first, act second."
They stepped inside.
The air smelled of alcohol, smoke, and expensive perfume.
Dimly lit room. Tables in alcoves. Bar counter with soft underlighting.
Ethan swept his gaze across the space.
And saw her immediately.
Red hair.
Black sunglasses and for some reason, a hood pulled all the way up, probably a hoodie over a dress.
The calm posture of someone used to being watched.
She sat at a far table.
And she was already looking at them.
Anna.
She wasn't smiling.
But there was something… knowing in her gaze.
Flash said quietly:
"That's her."
They approached.
Anna raised her glass.
"You're late," she said calmly.
Ethan sat across from her.
"We were busy staying alive. And you're kind of a big deal in the news."
She tilted her head slightly.
"I noticed."
Her gaze grew more serious.
"Do you have what she left behind?"
Flash sat next to Ethan.
"We have part of it."
"I need the rest," Anna said.
Bruno snorted.
"And we need to figure out whether we can trust you."
Anna didn't take offense.
"You can't," she said calmly.
"But you're going to have to."
Silence.
The music throbbed dully against the walls.
She leaned in closer.
"Corvin thinks he erased every trace.
He was wrong.
And if we hit him in the right place, the election collapses."
She looked straight at Ethan.
"She knew you would come," the woman said, turning her gaze to Flash.
Ethan's throat tightened.
"She… talked about me?"
Anna nodded.
"She said:
'If I don't come back, he'll still come. Because he doesn't know how to abandon the people he loves.'"
Ethan looked away.
His jaw clenched.
Anna spoke softly:
"The donor center is the key.
The container is the proof.
If you bring it to me, I'll take it public — to the whole city."
Flash asked:
"And if you sell us out?"
Anna answered calmly:
"Then you're already dead anyway."
After a pause she added:
"But I'm not planning to lose to those monsters."
They sat in silence, understanding everything this woman was saying.
"Then we have a deal."
Anna extended her hand.
"Deal."
Ethan stared at her palm.
Then at Maria's notebook hidden under his jacket.
And thought:
I'll see this through to the end.
He shook her hand.