The damp stench of the Astral Artery sewers and the static hum of the Quantum-Decoder Gilang had just won evaporated instantly, replaced by a suffocating silence inside the underground warehouse where they had fled. The iron storm door was slammed hard shut by Gilang, then locked tight with a heavy steel deadbolt and a double security bar.

In the center of the room, illuminated by only a single flickering pendant light, tension exploded instantly beyond containment. Nara slammed her computer bag onto the wooden table with a sharp thud, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her glasses sliding dangerously close to the tip of her nose.

"This is insane! Completely insane!" Nara cried hysterically, pointing frantically at her tablet screen, which still displayed the lingering dots of the pursuit signals. "We just barely crawled out of that black market alive, and now you're still trying to tell me our movements are safe?! We're surrounded before we can even catch our breath!"

Renata stood tall near the corner of the room, folding her arms across her chest with an expression as cold as ice. Yet, a sharp flash glinted clearly in her eyes. "Lower your tone, Nara. Panicking isn't going to solve our problems or stop the corporate hit squads outside."

"How am I supposed not to panic, Madam Director?!" Nara fired back fiercely, stepping two paces forward to confront Renata without an ounce of fear. "Ever since this woman joined us, the bad luck hasn't stopped! How did Ant Corp know precisely that we were at Zoran's stall in the Astral Artery? We only locked down that destination an hour ago!"

Hearing the accusation, the atmosphere in the room grew even more heated. Rania, cowering in the corner, stared at Nara with watery eyes, feeling completely intimidated.

"Hey, watch your mouth, Nara!" Gilang interjected sharply, stepping between the two of them with furrowed brows. "Don't go throwing baseless accusations around without clear proof."

"I'm not just making things up, Lang!" Nara protested, turning quickly toward Gilang with a desperate look. "Use some logic! Who among us knows the ins and outs of Ant Corp's internal tracking systems the best? Who had direct connections with the brass at the central tower right up until the moment she was fired? The answer is standing right in front of us!"

Renata snorted loudly, the corner of her lips curling into a biting, cynical smirk. "So, now you're accusing me of being a plant who deliberately set up this group? If I intended to hand you over to the corporation, I wouldn't have bothered running through sewer sludge and risking my life in a black market tonight, kid."

"That could easily just be an act!" Nara counterattacked, her voice rising higher. "So we'd trust you completely, and then at the most crucial moment, you hit the tracking beacon and—"

"Enough!" Gilang's voice boomed, cutting through the sharp argument with an authoritative tone that silenced the room instantly. Gilang glared back and forth between Nara and Renata, his jaw clenched tight. "If we start suspecting each other and tearing ourselves apart from the inside right now, we won't need to wait for Ant Corp to kick down the door. We'll be dead and buried right here from our own stupidity."

Nara scoffed angrily, turning her head away while crossing her arms over her chest. "But the suspicion makes sense, Lang. What if it's not Renata, but..." Nara glanced sideways at Rania, who was curled up in a corner trembling. "...or maybe someone else accidentally leaked our position?"

Rania flinched, the tears she had held back finally spilling down her cheeks. The teenage girl looked up, locking a wounded gaze on Nara. "Nara... are you accusing me? I just want my brother back... I swear, on everything, I never told a soul about this place..."

"I didn't mean you directly, Rania, but our position here is terribly vulnerable," Nara softened slightly, though her tone still betrayed lingering distrust. "Anyone could accidentally carry a tracking signal without realizing it. A phone, a bag, or even our gear."

Gilang let out a harsh breath, rubbing his face with calloused hands. He knew all too well the mental strain they were facing. Hiding from a corporate monolith like Ant Corp was the equivalent of playing hide-and-seek with the Grim Reaper.

"Nara's right about one thing," Gilang said quietly yet firmly, breaking the awkward silence. He looked at Nara, then shifted his gaze to Renata. "We need to make sure there are no internal leaks in our group. Before we formulate a strategy to breach the main tower, we need a complete sweep. Check all luggage, communication devices, and clothing."

Renata didn't take offense. Instead, the woman nodded calmly, offering an open gesture. "Go ahead and check my things if it eases this genius programmer's childish paranoia, Gilang."

Nara huffed quietly, turning to grab a mini frequency scanner from her bag. With swift movements, she powered on the device and began sweeping the surrounding area of the room for any anomalous wave signatures.

"Fine, let's prove who brought bad luck into this group," Nara grumbled, pointing the scanner sensor toward the table, Rania's bag, and finally approaching Gilang.

The scanner emitted a soft beep-beep with a glowing green indicator, signaling the immediate area was clear of active signals. Nara sighed in relief, then stepped toward Renata.

"Madam Director's turn," Nara said sarcastically, sweeping the scanner up and down Renata's body.

Renata stood rigidly without resisting, letting the device scan her clothes. However, the moment the scanner's sensor tip drew close to the inner left shoulder of the expensive suit jacket Renata had tossed over a wooden chair, the device's sound changed drastically.

Beep! Beep! Beep-beep-beep!

The green indicator on the scanner screen shifted to a blazing bright red, emitting a high-frequency squeal loud enough to split eardrums.

Nara jumped back two steps in shock, her eyes widening. "W-whoa... wait a second! There's an active, high-energy signal!"

Gilang narrowed his eyes, his right hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of the sword at his back. "Where's the source?!"

Nara directed the sensor closer to the inner collar of Renata's jacket. With slightly trembling hands, Nara felt along the velvet inner lining of the shoulder, then pulled out a tiny rice-grain-sized object emitting a faint, barely visible purple glow.

"T-this..." Nara whispered, choking on her words as she lifted the tiny object between two fingers before them. "A high-tier, military-encrypted nano-micro tracker. It's woven neatly right into the inner fabric fibers..."

Rania covered her mouth with her hand, while Gilang stared hard at the tiny device, then shifted his gaze back to Renata.

Renata’s face—always so calm and under control—turned completely pale. For the first time since they had met, the woman looked genuinely speechless. She stared at the tiny object in Nara's hand with deep furrows in her brow, as if unable to believe what she was seeing.

"No... that's impossible," Renata whispered softly, slowly shaking her head. "I've worn this jacket ever since I left headquarters... how could that thing..."

"So my guess was right?!" Nara panicked, glaring at Renata with a resurgence of anger. "You deliberately left a trail, or maybe your bosses up there never actually threw you away!"

"Wait, Nara! Don't jump to conclusions!" Gilang cut in swiftly, stepping forward to peer closely at Renata's expression. As someone accustomed to reading human deception on the streets, Gilang knew precisely when someone was acting and when someone was genuinely blindsided. And Renata's shock right now was an honest fact. "Look closely. A nano-tracker that small couldn't possibly be planted by someone on the run."

Renata took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. Her voice trembled faintly as she looked at Gilang. "She's right... I didn't know that thing was there. Ant Corp's Chief Security Director... my former boss... he must've planted this biometric tracker in my uniform long before I ever planned my escape."

Before any of them could respond to that sentence, a low, ground-shaking rumble suddenly sounded from outside the old warehouse building.

Rumble... rumble... rumble...

The pendant light in the room flickered wildly from a surge of immensely powerful electromagnetic waves. Through the upper ventilation gaps, the sound of multi-layered warning sirens and heavy armed footsteps began echoing closer from every direction of the street outside.

Nara stared wide-eyed at her tablet screen, which had suddenly flooded with dozens of dense red dots surrounding the building within a radius of less than a hundred meters.

"Damn... damn it!" Nara shrieked hysterically, her voice on the verge of tears. "That tracker just went fully live the moment it picked up an outside network! Ant Corp's security forces... they've surrounded this whole building!"