I returned to the condemned apartment not as a victor, but as a traumatized survivor carrying a terminal mission.

The adrenaline that had propelled me through the hospital was crashing, leaving behind a desolate ache.

I had abandoned the man I loved to a fate arguably worse than death, but I had secured the final key.

Elena was in panic, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

"I got the audio feed," she hissed, barely looking up.

"The impacts is they correlate to a specific frequency ...