Ephraim, Volga, and Dano spring a trap in a half-built Hyperion hospital, using a gravWell and an EMP drone to drag an Augustan shuttle from the sky. With escorts hammering the sealed roof, they breach the overturned craft and move through paralyzed bodyguards and attendants disabled by anacene-17.

Inside, a fox attacks Dano before Volga locks it away. The team finds the targets: a ten-year-old boy and a slender Gold girl. Dano cuts the boy free while Volga takes the girl. Savoring the inversion of power, Ephraim plants a bloody handprint and a Red-accent taunt to misdirect blame.

Ephraim then confronts Lyria among fallen servants, tries to execute her to protect the operation, but cannot. He carries her out, provoking Dano, when a red-bearded Telemanus lurches from the wreck. Despite multiple gunshots and anacene in his system, the Gold crushes Dano’s skull before Volga’s plasma blast shears off his arm and drops him.

The crew flees to a warehouse staging area where Cyra coordinates remote feeds and two Syndicate technicians strip tracking implants from the children. Ephraim, now on zoladone, warns the paralyzed Lyria to keep still or be killed. He and Volga set timed charges, torch evidence—including Dano’s body—and collapse the tunnel behind them.

They depart in a taxi with Pax, the Gold girl, and Lyria hidden, while soldiers swarm the crash site. As explosions thunder through the undergrid, the team’s victory is tempered by Dano’s death, Ephraim’s moral breach in sparing Lyria, and the looming consequences of abducting the children.