Chapter 5 Ghost and Blueprints

They spent the night hidden deep inside Marek's bunker, a space carved out beneath the ruins of an old transit station. Sleep came in fragments-Celia had nightmares of fire and metal, while Lawrence lay awake with eyes fixed on the low ceiling, haunted by decisions he couldn't take back. Morning-though time meant little underground-brought the sound of sizzling cables and Marek muttering at a console. Celia sat up groggily. "You always talk to yourself?" Marek didn't glance up. "The tech listens better than people.

Less attitude, too." Lawrence emerged from the shadows, shirt wrinkled, eyes bloodshot. He looked more like a fugitive now than the groomed heir he'd been only two days ago. Celia handed him a cup of bitter synth-coffee. "Drink this. Pretend it helps." He took it, managed a grimace of thanks, and sat beside her on the bench. "So. What's the plan?" Marek spun toward them, his chair squeaking in protest. "The auction happens in forty-eight hours. You'll have one shot to breach the Helix Ring without alerting the entire city." Celia stretched her arms and cracked her neck. "You said you had a backdoor?" "Still do," Marek replied. "There's a forgotten maintenance tube that runs beneath the lower quadrant. No longer in use, no longer monitored-on paper, anyway. It's tight, rusty, and full of toxic fog." "Sounds charming," Lawrence muttered. "But," Marek continued, "it leads directly beneath Sector V. Once there, you'll enter through a vent system and plant the override chip inside the core room. I'll hijack the auction's security feeds and disable lockdown. The moment the signal goes live, I'll broadcast the truth about the core to the whole city." Lawrence went still. "You're going to expose my father." "Not just him," Marek said. "Everyone involved. Corrupt tech barons, syndicates, board members who profit off power scarcity. All of them." Celia looked at Lawrence. "You okay with that?" He hesitated, then nodded. "They deserve worse." Marek slid a holographic blueprint across the table. "You'll need to memorize the route. Once inside, you'll have to move fast. The system reboots every seven minutes. That's your window." Celia studied the map carefully, noting key junctions, hazards, and the location of the core room. "Alright," she said. "What's the catch?" Marek grinned. "Besides death by electrocution or discovery by drone patrol? Nothing major." Celia rolled her eyes. "Lovely." Lawrence was silent, his gaze fixed on the blueprint. After a long pause, he said, "My father won't go down easy." Celia looked at him. "You worried about facing him?" "I'm worried about what he'll do when he realizes I betrayed him." "He already betrayed you," she said softly. "All you're doing is finally fighting back." He nodded, slowly. "Let's get it done." They spent the rest of the day preparing-assembling gear, practicing the insertion of the chip, and syncing comms with Marek. Celia refused to call it "training." She called it "not dying practice." At one point, while Marek was calibrating the scanner, Celia and Lawrence found themselves alone by the dim glow of a broken lamp. "You're handling this better than I expected," she said, handing him a small blade. "I had a very intense week," he said, testing the weight of it. "Crashing a ship, dodging bounty hunters, meeting a girl who can fix anything but her temper..." Celia smirked. "You're not bad at handling sarcasm either." He looked at her then-really looked. "I meant what I said. About stopping him. But also... thank you. For not turning me in. For not walking away." Celia shifted, uncomfortable with sincerity. "Don't make it a habit. I like my life quiet and un-exploded." He smiled. "Too late for that." She met his eyes and, for just a moment, the fire between them softened into something warm. Something uncertain. But before it could become anything more, Marek's voice crackled through the comms. "Alright, lovebirds. Your ride's ready." Celia stood. "Showtime."