They came at dawn.
Black SUVs rolled up to the edge of campus like sharks circling prey. Not police. Not school officials.
Private security.
Unmarked badges. Earpieces. Trained silence.
Zara spotted them from her dorm window.
"They're here."
Jaxon was already grabbing her bag. "We can't go through the front. I've got a route."
She didn't ask how he knew.
She just followed.
They ducked through the laundry tunnel beneath the east wing a narrow maintenance path that reeked of detergent and dust. Jaxon moved fast, instinctively, like he'd rehearsed this a hundred times in his head.
Zara's heart slammed in her chest.
"What is Protocol Nine?" she asked breathlessly.
He didn't look back. "It's how my father cleans house."
Outside, the school was still pretending nothing was wrong. Students laughed in clusters. Professors drank coffee.
But the black cars watched everything.
Zara and Jaxon slipped behind a hedge of hydrangeas and into the woods that bordered the campus.
"We're meeting Quinn," he said. "She's got a safehouse."
"A safehouse?" Zara huffed. "Seriously, how many secrets do you people have?"
"Too many," he muttered. "And none of them are safe anymore."
They made it halfway through the woods before a voice cut through the trees.
"Stop right there."
They froze.
Four agents in dark tactical gear stepped out of the brush. No guns, just tasers and one man holding a tablet.
Victor's face filled the screen.
"Hello, Zara."
She stepped forward, defiant. "You're too late."
"Oh, I don't think so," Victor said smoothly. "The video made quite the impression. But impressions fade. Accidents happen. Young people make mistakes."
Jaxon growled. "She's not going anywhere with you."
Victor smiled coldly. "You forget, son. I own everything you're standing on."
Then the tablet screen blinked off.
The lead agent stepped forward.
"Tasers only. She comes with us unharmed."
Zara's instincts screamed.
But Jaxon didn't wait.
He lunged.
The next seconds were chaos. Fists. Sparks. Shouts.
Jaxon tackled one agent, knocked another into a tree.
Zara grabbed a fallen taser, barely knowing how to hold it.
Then crack.
A shot of voltage missed her by inches.
She ran.
Jaxon shouted behind her, "Zara, GO!"
She didn't want to leave.
Didn't want to run again.
But she did.
She burst out of the woods onto the main road just as a red sedan screeched to a stop in front of her.
The window rolled down.
Ms. Quinn.
"Get in!"
Zara dove into the car, heart in her throat.
"Where's Jaxon?" Quinn asked.
Zara looked back.
The woods were silent.
Too silent.