The heavy silence after Ramos's phone call was overwhelming. It was the kind of quiet that feels loud, the kind that happens after something terrible and final has occurred. His question "Where are your friends?" hung in the dusty, cramped air of the cannery. Each word felt like a hammer strike, sealing their fate.

Evelyn was the first to speak, her voice a thin, terrified whisper. "My aunt," she said, her eyes wide with fear. "She lives by herself. He'll find her first. He'll… he'll use her to get to me." The thought was unbearable.

Then Silva's face lost all color. "My mom," he gasped, his voice choked. He scrambled for his phone, his hands trembling so violently he could barely hold it. "I have to call her. I have to warn her to leave, now!"

"It's too late for that," Kaito said, his voice empty and defeated. He wasn't really looking at his computer screens anymore; he was staring into space, overwhelmed. "If Ramos is asking that question, it means his men are already on their way. If you call your mom now, and his people are watching her phone… the call will tell them exactly where she is. We'd be leading him right to her."

Silva froze, his phone halfway to his ear. He was trapped, caught in a nightmare with no good way out.

Ace felt the full weight of the disaster crushing him. This was his doing. His decision to refuse Ramos—a choice that had felt right and moral—had backf terribly. Instead of protecting his friends, he had put a target on everyone they loved. He realized then that Ramos wasn't just a thug; he was a master planner. He didn't attack the stronghold directly; he destroyed everything around it first, leaving those inside with nothing and no one.

<<THREAT ANALYSIS: IMMINENT.>>

<<TARGETS: EVELYN'S AUNT, SILVA'S MOTHER, KAITO'S GRANDMOTHER.>>

<<OBJECTIVE: CAPTURE AND COERCION.>>

<<PREDICTED TIMELINE: 60 MINUTES OR LESS.>>

<<RECOMMENDATION: EVACUATE PRIMARY LOCATION. NO VIABLE DEFENSIVE SOLUTIONS.>>

The message from the System in Ace's mind was the final blow. It wasn't a warning; it was a verdict. There were no options left. They had lost.

Frustrated and angry, Ace slammed his bandaged fist onto the metal workbench. The sharp pain felt like a punishment he deserved. "There has to be something we can do! Think! Kaito, can't you… I don't know, send a fake emergency alert? Make it look like the police are coming?"

"He'd figure it out instantly," Kaito replied, his voice full of hopelessness. "His men aren't amateurs. A fake call wouldn't scare them off."

"Then we should go ourselves!" Silva yelled, jumping to his feet. "We'll get to our families before Ramos's men do! We'll fight for them!"

"Fight with what?" Evelyn cried out, waving a hand at their surroundings—a workshop full of computer parts, tools, and wires. "We have a wrench and a soldering gun! They have actual weapons, Silva! We'd be walking right into a bloodbath and getting everyone killed!"

The utter hopelessness of their situation pressed down on them like a physical weight. They had outsmarted Ramos in a digital battle, but they were about to lose everything that truly mattered in the real world.

It was in this moment of complete despair that Kaito's main computer monitor suddenly lit up. A small window popped up in the center of the screen, displaying a simple, terrifying message:

INCOMING DATA TRANSFER. SOURCE: UNTRACEABLE. ENCRYPTION: UNBREAKABLE. ACCEPT Y/N?

Everyone stared. This wasn't from Ramos's network. It wasn't from anywhere they knew.

"What is that?" Ace asked, his voice tense.

"I don't know," Kaito whispered, his hands pausing above the keyboard. "It's… it's not an attack. It's asking for permission to send us data. The level of security on it… I've never seen anything this advanced. It shouldn't be possible."

"It's her," Evelyn said, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and realization. "It's Silica."

A cold wave of fear washed over them. The digital ghost, Silica, was at their door again. Was this her final move? To destroy them completely while they were already down and defeated?

"Don't touch it!" Silva said, his voice tight with panic. "It's a trick! It's got to be a virus! She's laying a trap for us!"

"What other choice do we have?" Kaito shot back, a strange, desperate hope flickering in his eyes. "Ramos's men are only minutes away from grabbing our families. We're out of options. Maybe… just maybe, this is the one move we have left."

Before anyone could argue further, his finger hovered over the 'Y' key. He looked directly at Ace, his expression asking a silent, monumental question: Do we trust our worst enemy?

Ace held his gaze. This was the ultimate gamble. A leap of faith into complete darkness. They would be trusting a known, dangerous hacker over the certain, violent doom coming from Ramos. After a heartbeat, he gave a single, sharp nod.

Kaito pressed 'Y'.

The dialog box vanished from the screen. For one full second, nothing happened. The tension was unbearable. Then, information began to flood across the monitor at a blinding, impossible speed. Blueprints, spreadsheets, photographs, and text files poured into a new folder that appeared on Kaito's desktop. The entire transfer was over in three seconds.

The folder was named simply: A GIFT.

With a hand that shook slightly, Kaito moved the cursor and opened it.

The first file was a detailed architectural blueprint. The label read: "V. Ramos - Primary Safe House / Command Center." It was a massive penthouse apartment, and the document was covered in notes pointing out blind spots for security cameras, the timing of guard patrols, and even the hidden location of a private panic room.

The next file contained financial records. "V. Ramos - Offshore Account Holdings (Untouched)." It was a list of secret bank account numbers in Switzerland and Singapore—accounts their own earlier attack had completely missed. The amounts of money in them were astronomical.

There were also personal dossiers on Ramos's most trusted men, including Marcus. The files noted who was truly loyal, who had weaknesses, and even included information about their families.

Finally, and most shockingly, there was a live GPS tracking feed. It showed three separate cars moving through the city's streets in real time. Each car was clearly tagged. "Team Alpha - En route to Evelyn Sloane Residence." "Team Bravo - En route to Marco Silva Residence." "Team Charlie - En route to Kaito Chen Residence."

They could actually watch the glowing dots moving, block by block, creeping closer and closer to the homes of their loved ones.

"She's… handing us Ramos," Evelyn breathed, her hand covering her mouth in utter disbelief. "She's giving us everything we need to destroy him."

"But why?" Silva asked, completely bewildered. "Why would she help us?"

"She's not helping us," Ace said, the terrible truth clicking into place in his mind. "She's finishing her own game. We were never her main target. Ramos was. We were just the tool she used to weaken him first. We created the chaos that let her steal this information. And now she's handing us the weapon and pointing us right at his heart."

She was using them one last time. She was offering them the only way to save their families, but the price was clear: they would have to use this information to launch a direct, and likely suicidal, attack on Ramos's most heavily guarded stronghold.

It was the ultimate manipulation. A gift that was really a poison.

<<DATA ANALYSIS: PROVIDED INTEL - 99% PROBABILITY OF ACCURACY.>>

<<SOURCE MOTIVATION: CONFIRMED - MANIPULATION TOWARDS DIRECT CONFRONTATION WITH VICTOR RAMOS.>>

<<SUCCESS PROBABILITY OF DIRECT ASSAULT: 4.2%.>>

<<SUCCESS PROBABILITY OF USING INTEL TO THWART IMMEDIATE KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT: 78%.>>

The System laid out the cruel math of their choice with its usual cold logic. They could use this intelligence to save their families right now, but it would almost certainly lead to their own deaths later when they faced Ramos. Or, they could do nothing, and watch the people they loved most be taken from them.

The live GPS map on the screen was a nightmare unfolding in real time. The glowing dots representing Ramos's teams were terrifyingly close now, just five minutes away from their targets.

"We're out of time. We're out of options," Ace said, his voice shifting, becoming colder and harder, like steel being tempered by fire. A desperate plan formed in his mind. "Kaito, can you send an anonymous tip to the police? Right now. Send one to each of the addresses. Use the live GPS data. Tell them there's a credible, immediate threat of a home invasion. Give them the exact make, model, and color of the cars Ramos's men are in."

A spark of understanding lit up Kaito's eyes. "It could work," he said, his fingers already a blur across the keyboard. "If police cars roll up just as his guys are getting out of their cars, it will spook them. They're thugs, but they're not stupid enough to start a shootout with cops in a quiet neighborhood. They'll have to abort the mission and leave."

"Do it. Now," Ace commanded, his eyes fixed on the advancing dots.

The next two minutes were an agony of tension. They watched, barely breathing, as Kaito used his skills to fake emergency calls. He mimicked the calls coming from different payphones near each of their families' homes, feeding the precise, terrifying details to the 911 operators. He was creating a digital ghost story for the police, one they would have to take seriously.

Then, they watched the GPS screen.

The dots reached the final block before their destinations… and then they stopped. The vehicles didn't move. They just sat there, idling on the map for what felt like an eternity.

"Come on, come on…" Silva whispered, clutching his head.

Then, slowly, miraculously, the dots began to move again. But they weren't moving forward. They were turning around. They began to drive away, splitting up and disappearing back into the maze of the city's streets.

The immediate, terrifying threat was over. Their families were safe.

The wave of relief that crashed over them was so powerful it was almost physical. Silva's legs gave out, and he sank to his knees on the concrete floor, great, heaving sobs of relief shaking his body. Evelyn wrapped her arms tightly around herself, tears of pure, unadulterated gratitude streaming silently down her face.

But Ace did not celebrate. He did not collapse or cry. He remained standing, his gaze locked on the computer screen. His eyes weren't on the now-empty GPS map. They were fixed on the other files Silica had sent them. The detailed blueprints of Ramos's home. The lists of his secret fortunes. The personal secrets of his most dangerous men.

He understood now. Silica hadn't just given them a tool to save their families in that moment. She had handed them the complete battle plans for a full-scale war. She had given them the master key to Ramos's entire kingdom and was essentially daring them to walk in and try to claim it for themselves.

The message was undeniable. The game had completely changed. They were no longer just prey, small animals hiding from powerful predators. Silica had suddenly, and forcefully, promoted them from helpless pawns to the most powerful piece on the chessboard—a queen—and had shoved them directly into the center of the game, under the control of a player they couldn't even see.

They had survived the last hour. But the cost of that survival was a terrifying and monumental new question that now hung in the air between them, heavy and unavoidable: What would they do with the incredibly powerful, and incredibly dangerous, weapon they had just been given?

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