The facility doors hissed open, and Haruto stepped through.

His presence alone was enough to send a ripple of tension through the control room. Enforcer officers snapped to attention, their cybernetic implants synchronizing to recognize his authority. He was no ordinary soldier—Haruto was an elite among Enforcers, engineered for precision, efficiency, and control.

Dressed in high-grade, matte-black Enforcer armor, he radiated an aura of absolute dominance. His cybernetic eye—sleek and devoid of unnecessary emotion—scanned the data scrolling across the main holo-screen.

An unauthorized system breach. A rogue target on the run.

Ryo.

Haruto exhaled slowly, flexing his fingers. His cybernetic enhancements buzzed beneath his skin, ready to engage at a moment’s notice.

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He had been waiting for this moment.

“Deploy all units,” he commanded, his voice calm but firm. “Lock down all exits. Override security failsafes.”

The officers hesitated. One of them, a lower-ranked technician, swallowed hard before speaking. “Sir, the breach originated from… one of the Restricted Pods.”

Haruto’s gaze darkened. So, it was true. Ryo had been kept on ice all this time, a secret buried deep within the system.

He tapped a control panel on his wrist, bringing up a live feed of the facility. The thermal scanners flickered, struggling to track Ryo’s movements through the ventilation system.

Haruto smirked. Predictable.

He turned to a nearby squad. “Prepare the Sentinel drones. Funnel him toward Subsection 9.”

One of the officers hesitated. “Sir… that’s—”

“I know what it is,” Haruto interrupted, his voice like steel. “That’s exactly why he’s going there.”

He activated his tracking beacon. A red marker flared up, locked onto Ryo’s approximate location.

Haruto’s fingers twitched at his side. This wouldn’t be a chase.

It would be a hunt.

And he would make sure Ryo never ran again.