Cold Storage

Jessica sat in the dimly lit safehouse, Mercer’s blood still staining her dress. The deep red had dried at the edges, cracking when she moved. She hadn’t changed, hadn’t even thought about it. The fabric clung to her, heavy, suffocating.

The single white pawn rested in her palm. It was small, unremarkable. But it felt heavier than it should.

Leanna and Olivia burst through the door behind her, locking it shut. They were breathless, not from running, but from everything else.

Leanna exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through her hair. “What the hell happened back there?”

Jessica barely looked up. The pawn spun between her fingers, leaving faint indentations in her skin. Her hands were still trembling. Mercer’s face. The assassin’s smirk. The gunshot.

“Mercer’s dead.” Her voice came out hollow. “The assassin got away.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Leanna stepped closer, narrowing her eyes. “You knew him, didn’t you?”

Jessica’s fingers clenched around the pawn. She swallowed. “No.”

That was a lie. She knew the smirk. The way he moved. The way he looked at her, like he knew something she didn’t.

Olivia dumped her laptop bag onto the table, oblivious to the moment passing between them. “I managed to grab Mercer’s drive before we ran. If he had anything on Project Dominion, it’ll be on here.”

Jessica forced herself to breathe. Focus. The assassin was gone. But the questions weren’t.

* * *

The room was silent except for the steady tapping of Olivia’s fingers against the keyboard. Jessica sat at the edge of the worn-out couch, hunched forward, elbows on her knees. Her bloodied dress itched at her skin, but she didn’t move.

Her eyes traced the grain of the wooden floor, unfocused. She wasn’t thinking about the files. She wasn’t thinking about Mercer. She was thinking about him, the assassin. The way he had glanced back in the middle of the chase. Not panicked. Not desperate. Just watching. Calculating. Looking at her like he already knew how it would end.

A sharp crack of static jolted her back.

Olivia cursed softly, frustration building as she typed rapidly. "Mercer’s encryption is next-level," she muttered. Seconds stretched into tense silence. "Almost… got it."

The screen flickered twice, then finally loaded. Olivia exhaled sharply. "Okay. Now we’re in. Let’s see what he was hiding."

Jessica turned as Olivia gestured to the monitor. A document flickered to life. Buried deep in Mercer’s encrypted files was an address. The location of an abandoned monastery outside Rome.

Jessica’s breath caught. Her pulse skipped. She didn’t know why.

Leanna leaned in. “What is this?”

Olivia’s brow furrowed as she read. “It’s a storage site. Cold archive. Vanguard used it to store classified research.” Her fingers scrolled. “Specifically… Project Dominion files.”

Jessica’s heartbeat felt distant, muffled. She stared at the screen but wasn’t really seeing it. A cold trickle ran down the back of her spine. She already knew. Somewhere, deep down, she already knew.

Leanna tensed visibly. "Jess, this screams trap. Dominion wouldn’t leave this lying around without contingencies."

Jessica’s voice hardened slightly, resolute yet strained. "I know. But if we avoid it, we learn nothing. We have to spring the trap, on our terms."

Leanna hesitated, exchanging a wary glance with Olivia before nodding grimly. "Then we go prepared for the worst."

Jessica’s gaze flicked back to the address, to the rows of text glowing in the dim room.

“We go in anyway.”

* * *

The others kept working, discussing logistics, strategies, contingency plans. Jessica barely heard them. She drifted to the window, fingers tightening around the pawn. Outside, the city stretched beyond the glass—beautiful, ancient, untouched by the war they were fighting.

She closed her eyes. A sharp and blinding pain erupted suddenly, like a needle driven deep behind her eyes. A voice surfaced from the darkness, not her own. It was cold and clinical.

"You don’t get to wake up until they let you," it whispered, echoing as if spoken from underwater.

Jessica gasped, staggering slightly. The room blurred back into focus, leaving her nauseated and trembling. Her vision swam. Her fingers went numb.

A hand landed on her shoulder grounding her back into reality. Leanna. “Jess.”

Jessica forced a breath. “I’m fine.”

That was another lie. Leanna didn’t believe her. But she didn’t push.

* * *

Olivia closed the laptop. “This is it. The last piece of the puzzle.”

Leanna exhaled, rubbing her temples. “It’s also going to be the most guarded.”

Jessica turned back to them, face unreadable. “Then we’ll just have to be careful.”

She set the pawn down on the table. The wood was smooth beneath her fingertips. Too familiar.

Leanna studied her, eyes sharp. “Jess. If we go there, you need to be ready for whatever we find.”

Jessica met her gaze. “I am.”

Another lie.

* * *

Alone later, Jessica sat on the bed, turning the pawn slowly in her fingers. It felt familiar, hauntingly so. She knew it was tied to her past, tangled in memories too fragmented to piece together. The truth hovered just beyond reach, terrifying yet necessary. She wasn't sure if she was chasing answers or running from them. Maybe both.