Beyond the Celestial Boundaries

The hum of AeroGallacianSpace's control center filled the tense silence as Cynthia, Prometheus, Lena, Marcus, and Marla pored over the encrypted transmissions. Time was slipping through their fingers, and the longer the true mole remained hidden, the greater the risk to everything they had built.

Marcus's fingers flew across the keyboard, running a deep trace on the suspicious transmissions. "Whoever did this covered their tracks well, but I think I've got a lead," he muttered.

Cynthia leaned in. "Where does it point?"

"A secondary server—one that shouldn't even exist in our system," Marcus replied, his brow furrowed. "It's been rerouting communications through various internal nodes to avoid detection. But if I break through the encryption, I might be able to pinpoint the source."

Marla folded her arms. "Do it. But be careful. If they realize we're on to them, they might wipe everything."

As Marcus worked, Lena's eyes scanned the logs. "Wait…" She hesitated, then pointed at the screen. "That access timestamp—it matches a time when we were all in the conference room."

Cynthia stiffened. "Which means they were still active while we were tracking them."

Prometheus exhaled sharply. "They're still watching us."

A chilling realization settled over the room. The mole wasn't just feeding information to Vincent Kane—they were anticipating their every move.

Seconds later, Marcus straightened. "I've cracked part of it." He brought up a decrypted message, and the words sent a cold shiver down Cynthia's spine.

"They know. Adjust accordingly."

A tense silence followed.

Marla was the first to speak. "This message was sent less than an hour ago."

Lena swallowed hard. "That means the mole is still in the building."

Cynthia's mind raced. "If they know we're onto them, they might try to cover their tracks or escape." She turned to Marla. "Lock down the facility. No one leaves until we figure this out."

Marla nodded and stepped away to make the call, while Cynthia, Prometheus, and Lena exchanged uneasy glances.

Then Marcus's screen flickered.

For a moment, the feed distorted, static washing over it. Then, a new message appeared.

"Too late."

The lights in the control center flickered, and all at once, the system shut down.

A security breach warning flashed across every screen before plunging the room into darkness.

Cynthia's heart pounded.

The enemy had just made their move.

And now, it was a race against time.