Presidential Office, Dawn

Through his office window, Rivera watched prayer processions weave between the twentieth floor catwalks, their chants mixing with the acrid smell of burned enhancement ports. The mother's sobs cut through it all as she clutched her dead children's school badges, the metal still warm from their bodies.

"They were just walking home," she whispered. "Wrong street, wrong time."

His security feed showed Kasper in the Bounty Hunter's bar twenty floors below, enhancement ports burning white-hot with rejection as Ghost's team celebrated their parliament raid. The hunter's hands trembled around a glass of aguardiente – the same tremors Rivera had seen in Sarah before she fell.

He turned back to the grieving mother. "It ends," he promised her. "Today."

Parliament Hall - Two Hours Later

The twelve arrested senators sat with tesla-cuffs humming around their wrists, their illegal neural upgrades finally dark. Kasper stood behind them, his enhancement rejection barely contained as his targeting systems highlighted their neural patterns. The raid had cost him – Rivera could see it in the way he carried himself, in the increasingly frequent port malfunctions.

The International Governance Council's representative, Ms. Chen, rose with artificial grace. "These neural interrogation methods violate enhanced persons' rights. The Council cannot—"

"Rights?" Kasper's laugh was cold as fever. "Tell that to Elena Martínez. She buried both her children yesterday because these enhanced persons wanted to test their new neural weapons."

Rivera watched his hunter's ports flare dangerously. Kasper was pushing himself too hard, just like Sarah had. But they needed him – needed his ruthless efficiency, his willingness to cross lines Rivera couldn't.

Command Center - Afternoon

Ghost's team worked from their safehouse, the feed showing Circuit's trembling hands and Scope's mechanical precision. Kasper moved between them, his enhancement rejection getting worse by the hour. Just like the parliament raid, just like Sarah's final mission.

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"The pattern's wrong," Ghost's voice came through Rivera's secure channel, gravelly from years of combat stims. "These gangs... they're being positioned."

Kasper's image cut in, his ports burning brighter. "Same signature as the weapon they used on those kids yesterday. But bigger." His face hardened through obvious pain. "Much bigger."

Rivera studied their feeds, noting how the team unconsciously oriented around Kasper despite Ghost's leadership. They knew what Rivera knew – Kasper would push himself past breaking to finish this hunt. Just like Sarah had.

Presidential Suite - Evening

Sofía's crayons scattered across the floor as Rivera entered. On his secure tablet, Kasper's biometrics flashed warning after warning. Seventy-two hours since the parliament raid, and the hunter's enhancement rejection was reaching critical levels.

"Papa! Look—" Sofía thrust a drawing forward: their family in simple lines, no ports, no chrome. The way Sarah had drawn them, before the enhancements took her.

Isabella stepped in from her tactical meeting. "The mothers' network spotted gang members pulling back from three more neighborhoods. They're leaving too easily. And Kasper..." She hesitated. "His readings match Sarah's final logs."

Midnight

The secure phone's ring shattered the night's silence. Rivera fumbled for it, still half-asleep, Sofía's latest drawing falling from his desk. Through his window, he could hear the city's neural network crackling, an electric tension building in the air.

"Sir." Ghost's voice carried the same tight control it had in White Forest, right before everything went wrong. "The harvest... it's not for their ports. The Director is using them to power something. Something big." Static crackled. In the background, Circuit's choked gasp as she fought withdrawal, Scope's rifle cracking with mechanical precision.

"Miguel," Ghost used his first name – something he'd never done. "It's like White Forest, but inverse. They're not unleashing chaos. They're channeling it. Every burned-out port, every drained gang member... it's all being fed into—"

The line exploded with Circuit's scream. "*They're in the system!*" The sound of her stim case clattering to the floor. "Power signatures off the charts – just like the forest – they're going to—"

Ghost's voice turned sharp: "Get your family out. This isn't a retreat, it's a—"

Silence.

Rivera lunged for his office window. Across the city, neighborhood by neighborhood, the lights were going dark. Not like a power failure – like a wave of shadow, methodically consuming the streets they'd just won back. The neural network's hum rose to a scream.

His phone lit up with Santos's alert: *Enhanced gang activity surging. All sectors. Simultaneously.*

Through the darkness, Rivera could hear it starting: screams, gunfire, the sound of doors being broken down. The gangs weren't just returning.

They were harvesting.

He reached for the photo of Sofía on his desk, just as every light in the presidential palace went black.