I never thought I'd end up here, in the heart of the beast. The city below was a mess of flickering neon lights and endless rain, but up in Zade's penthouse, everything was clean and cold. I was Lou, the rebel hacker who'd spent months planning this break-in. My fingers had danced over keyboards, cracking codes and dodging firewalls, all to steal the data that could bring down his empire. But now, as I slipped through the vents and dropped into his private office, something shifted inside me. Fear? Yeah, but also this weird pull, like I wanted to get caught.

The room was huge, all glass walls showing the...