**Chapter 6: The Ashes of Empire**
**Crowe Technologies Rooftop — 7:12 AM**
The gunshot still rang in Tania's ears, a metallic echo against the dawn. Marshall Crowe's body lay sprawled at her feet, his blood seeping into the concrete like ink. Clifford's hand closed over hers, prying the pistol loose. "They'll hear that for miles," he said, voice stripped of its usual control.
She didn't flinch. "Let them."
Daniel emerged from the stairwell, face ashen. "Eleanor's already spinning the narrative. Crowe's 'tragic death' is trending as a 'heroic stand against corporate espionage.'" He tossed his phone to the ground, the screen cracked. "She's erased us. We're ghosts now."
**Onward Tower Safehouse — 8:30 AM**
The safehouse was a glass-walled prison overlooking the river. Tania's father hunched over a monitor, decrypting the last of Echo's files. "The kill switch only crippled the active code," he muttered. "The root program is still dormant in you, Tania. Like a sleeper cell."
She pressed a hand to her temple, flashes of Crowe's dying sneer bleeding into her mother's voice: *"You were always the key."*
Clifford cornered her by the window. "Why did you pull the trigger?"
"Because you wouldn't have." Her laugh was brittle. "You'd have kept him alive to manipulate. Just like you manipulated *me*."
His jaw tightened. "I funded your parents' work to stop Crowe, not to play god. They begged me to protect you—*from this*." He gestured to the city below, smog swallowing the skyline. "But you're not a victim anymore, are you?"
**Eleanor's Penthouse — 10:00 AM**
Eleanor sipped champagne as Crowe's board members groveled. "The stock has plummeted 40%," one stammered.
"Good," she purred. "Buy up the scraps. And send the cleaners to Clifford's safehouse. I want Tania Marlowe's body found in the river."
Her phone buzzed—a photo of Daniel's niece, pigtails askew, sitting on a park bench. A threat. A promise.
**The Safehouse — 12:45 PM**
Tania's vision blurred. The chip's code flickered behind her eyelids, numbers bleeding into memories. *Her mother's lab. Clifford, younger, arguing with her parents. "It's too dangerous. She's just a child."*
She stumbled into the hall. "You were there," she accused, cornering Clifford. "The day they implanted Echo. You *watched*."
He didn't deny it. "Your parents were desperate. Crowe was closing in. I offered them sanctuary, but they insisted the trials continue." His voice frayed. "You screamed for hours."
**Midtown Docks — 3:00 PM**
Daniel met the black van alone. "I need the girl," he told the mercenary.
"Eleanor says you first." A syringe gleamed. "Neurotoxin. Quick, if you don't struggle."
He lunged.
**The Safehouse — 5:17 PM**
Tania's nose bled as she hacked into Echo's core. "It's not just a memory chip. It's a transmitter. Crowe was tracking me—*through you*." She whirled on her father. "You knew."
He flinched. "We had to test the range. Clifford swore you'd never be at risk—"
A window shattered.
**The Calm Before — 5:19 PM**
Clifford shoved Tania behind the sofa as bullets shredded the room. "Eleanor's here."
"No." Tania stared at the tactical team breaching the door. "*I* am."
She closed her eyes.
**Echo Activated — 5:20 PM**
The world flatlined into code.
Tania moved like a marionette, disarming the first mercenary with a pressure point she'd never learned. Her body remembered. Echo remembered.
Clifford shouted her name, but she was gone—drowned in a flood of borrowed skills, stolen instincts. She broke a man's spine with a textbook kick. *Marital arts module: uploaded 2009.*
Eleanor's voice crackled over a comms unit: "Terminate her!"
Tania seized a grenade. Pulled the pin. Smiled.
**End of Chapter 6**