Zurich, Switzerland – 08:32 AM Local Time

A light snow blanketed the cobbled streets of Zurich’s old district as Michael Trent stepped out of the Bureau’s chartered vehicle. His breath curled in the cold air, but his eyes remained focused on the apartment building ahead.

Apartment 302 — rented under the alias Anna Kübler. But Michael knew her real name.

Claire Jensen.

Former MI6. Codebreaker. Known in covert circles as The Girl from Zurich. She vanished three years ago after leaking details of a joint CIA-Bureau operation in Istanbul. Some called her a traitor. Michael had another word in mind: key.

She was the last confirmed contact of Dr. Nathan Wolfe—and maybe the only person who could still stop Darrow.

The Encounter

Michael climbed the worn marble staircase, silent with each step. He reached the door and knocked three times—pause—then once. A code knock they had used back in Berlin.

No answer.

He knocked again. Still silence.

He drew his sidearm and tapped the doorknob with a scanner—no tripwires.

He opened the door slowly.

Inside was a dimly lit studio. Clean, sparse, and cold. But someone had been there recently—steam still rose from a tea cup, and a holographic screen on the far wall blinked with encrypted code.

And then—he heard it.

The faint click of a safety release behind him.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” a woman’s voice said, calm and accented.

Michael raised his hands. “Claire.”

“Michael Trent,” she replied, stepping out of the shadows, holding a compact Glock at his back. “The Bureau sends its finest. Or perhaps… its most desperate?”

He turned slowly, meeting her icy blue gaze. She looked the same—long black coat, dark auburn hair, and eyes that didn’t blink unless they had to.

“I’m not here to arrest you,” he said. “I’m here because Darrow is alive. And I think you already know that.”

Secrets in the Shadows

Claire lowered her weapon—barely.

“I warned them,” she said. “I told the Bureau two years ago that Darrow’s operation had gone underground. That Wolfe wasn’t missing—he was building something.”

“You didn’t just warn them,” Michael said, stepping forward. “You leaked our entire Istanbul command map to Interpol. You compromised three field agents.”

“I had no choice,” she said coldly. “They were pawns in a larger game. Sacrifices to a plan the Bureau didn’t want to admit existed.”

Michael narrowed his eyes. “Omega Protocol.”

Claire nodded.

“He’s not targeting labs anymore,” she said. “He’s targeting the genome of decision-making. Behavioral manipulation via genetic predisposition. NorthStar was just a prototype. Omega is the weapon.”

Michael swallowed hard.

“And Wolfe?”

“Is no longer working for Darrow,” she said. “He’s leading him.”

Flashback: Zurich, One Year Earlier

Claire sat in a café near the Zurich stock exchange, sipping coffee. Nathan Wolfe entered, disguised in a hooded coat. He looked older, more paranoid, but his mind was sharp as ever.

“Do you know what they’ve created?” he whispered.

She leaned in. “What have you created, Nathan?”

“An AI that can rewrite moral patterns by reading your DNA. Omega doesn’t control you. It rewrites you—from the inside.”

Claire froze.

“You gave this to Darrow?”

“No,” Wolfe said, “I tried to destroy it. But he took the backup. Now he’s modifying it.”

“Into what?”

Wolfe looked haunted. “Into a cure for free will.”

Back to Present: A Warning and a Deal

“You’re telling me,” Michael said, “that Darrow plans to use Omega to create… what? A programmable population?”

Claire nodded. “Not just control. Transformation. He believes society’s flaws can be corrected at the cellular level. Emotion. Loyalty. Doubt. All mapped and modified. And he has a test subject pool.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Where?”

She opened a hidden drawer and pulled out a dossier. Inside were photos of a small private island in the Baltic Sea—fenced compounds, labs, armed guards.

“He’s already started trials. Mostly abducted political prisoners. A few… volunteered.”

Michael flipped to the last page.

There, among the captured data logs, was a familiar name.

Markus Grey.

Back at Bureau HQ – Eva’s Mission

Director Adams summoned Eva Monroe to a restricted terminal.

“You’re going to the Baltic,” Adams said. “Off the books. You’ll infiltrate the facility with an intel drone and confirm what Claire’s dossier contains.”

Eva didn’t hesitate.

“I want full satellite and ground team support. If this is real, we’re going to need more than drones.”

Adams frowned. “No ground support. Not yet. We can’t risk spooking Darrow. If he goes dark again, we may never find him.”

Eva nodded. “Then I go alone.”

As she turned to leave, Adams added, “And Eva… keep your line to Michael open at all times. We don’t know who else might be listening.”

Michael’s Departure

As Michael prepared to leave Zurich with Claire, he stopped by the balcony of her apartment and looked at the mountains beyond.

“I don’t know if I can trust you,” he said.

“You shouldn’t,” she replied. “But I’m the only one who knows the next access point to Omega’s core AI. And if we don’t reach it first…”

“We lose the game,” Michael said.

“No,” Claire corrected, stepping past him. “We become the next test subjects.”

To Be Continued in Chapter 4: The Secret Below Lexton Labs