After his frantic call, Ace burst into the cannery, his breath ragged from sprinting. His words, "He's coming for all of us. Run!", echoed in the sudden, dead silence of the cavernous space. It was a death sentence, delivered in person this time.

For a single, terrifying moment, everyone was frozen. Evelyn's face was a mask of pure panic. Silva was so stunned he didn't even move, and a bag of coffee beans fell from his limp hand, spilling all over the floor. Kaito's fingers were poised above his keyboard, his eyes huge behind his glasses.

Kaito was the one who snapped into action. He smashed his hand down on the enter key. Suddenly, the main computer screen turned a bright, warning red. A loud, blaring alarm screeched through the room—a sound they had built but never hoped to hear.

"It's the perimeter alarm," Kaito said, his voice strangely calm compared to the noise. "They're here. They've already tripped the outside sensors. We have about a minute and a half before they get in."

The horrible noise shook them out of their shock. "Run WHERE?" Silva screamed, his voice full of panic. "There is nowhere to go! He'll find us! He'll find my mother, he'll find your coffee shop, Evelyn! He'll find Kaito's grandma!" He turned to Ace, his face a mix of hurt and fear. "How could you say no to him? Why didn't you just do what he asked?"

Ace felt the words like a physical blow. He tried to explain about the scary basement room, the sharp tools, and Mitch's hopelessness, but he couldn't form the sentences.

"Because he isn't a monster like they are, Silva!" Evelyn yelled, moving to stand between them. Her own fear had turned into a powerful, defensive anger. "That's the entire reason we're a team! If he had done that horrible thing, he wouldn't be our Ace anymore. He'd be one of Ramos's cruel soldiers. Is that what you want?"

Silva looked from her to Ace, his anger fading into a terrible feeling of defeat. "So our plan is to just die as the good guys? Is that it?"

"No," Kaito said. Even with the alarm still screaming, his voice was clear and firm. He was staring at his monitor, which now showed a complicated, glowing map of lines and connections they didn't recognize. "That's not the plan at all."

Everyone turned to look at him. The red emergency light from the screen glinted off his glasses.

"While we were all working on our digital shield," Kaito explained, his fingers already flying over the keyboard to open new windows, "I was also building something else in secret. A backdoor. A safety net."

"A backdoor into what?" Ace asked, his heart still racing, but now with a tiny spark of hope.

"Into him," Kaito said, and his voice had a new, cold, determined tone they had never heard. "Into Ramos. While I was searching the city's power lines to hide us, I found a weakness. The company Ramos uses for his fake legitimate businesses keeps its money records on an internet cloud service. Their security is strong. But not perfect."

He opened one last window. It was a login screen for a very secure server. The username was already filled in: V Ramos. The password box was empty, but a little bar next to it was slowly filling up.

"I found a tiny way in a few weeks ago," Kaito admitted, his eyes locked on the screen. "I've been running a program ever since that's been quietly trying every single password possible. I didn't have a plan for it. I was just… scared. I wanted a weapon, just in case."

The loading bar reached the end. The screen flashed. ACCESS GRANTED.

Kaito took a quick, sharp breath. "I'm in."

The screen showed a list of folders with names like Vance Imports Money Records, Sapphire Lounge Income, and Portland Ave Building. This was it—the secret digital core of Ramos's entire operation.

"We can't fight him with fists or guns," Kaito said, turning to face them. His eyes were shining with a new, fierce energy. "But we can attack what matters most to him: his money and his fake respectable image." He looked straight at Ace. "You gave us this chance by choosing us over him. Now we choose to fight back. Together."

Everyone understood what he meant. Running was no longer the plan. Fighting back was.

"What's the plan?" Ace asked, his voice now steady. He was still scared, but the fear was turning into solid determination.

"We'll wreck his operations," Kaito explained. "We'll make it look like one of his rivals did it. We move huge amounts of his cash into secret bank accounts I set up with fake names. We mess up his delivery schedules, cancel his orders, and create total confusion in his finances. We'll make such a big mess that for the next week, all he can do is put out fires in his own business. He won't have time to hunt us."

"But what about them?" Silva asked, pointing a shaking finger toward the door. They could now hear car doors slamming outside, even over the fading alarm. "How do we get past Marcus and his men right now?"

"We don't," Ace said, a bold plan suddenly forming clearly in his mind. He looked at Kaito's screen, at the incredible access he now had. "We use Ramos's own power structure against him. Kaito, you have the keys to his whole kingdom. His email, his messages. Right now, inside his system, you are him."

A crazy, desperate idea took shape. "Send a message to Marcus right now. Make it look like it's coming from Ramos himself. Call off the attack. Tell him it was all a mistake, that there's a bigger emergency at the docks, and that he needs every single man there right away."

The boldness of the plan left everyone speechless. They were going to fake an order from the crime boss himself.

"Can you actually do that?" Evelyn asked Kaito, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Right now, in this system, I am him," Kaito said, a hard smile touching his lips. His fingers were already moving. "I can be anyone." He opened a messaging program. The account was already logged in as Victor Ramos. He found Marcus name and started typing.

Marcus. Stand down. Abort the cannery operation immediately. New priority. Get everyone to the docks now. We have a major containment issue. The shipment is compromised. I will explain there. This is the only priority.

He showed them the screen. "It's perfect," Evelyn whispered, impressed. "It's vague, it's urgent, and it uses his own special words like 'containment issue' and 'shipment compromised.' It sounds just like him."

"Will Marcus believe it?" Silva asked, his grip on the chair so tight his knuckles were white.

"He has to," Ace said. "The message is coming from his boss own account. Why would he doubt it?"

Kaito pressed send.

The four of them fell completely silent, straining to hear any sound from outside. The only thing they could hear was their own hearts pounding.

For ten extremely long seconds, there was nothing. Then, they heard it. A sharp, confused yell. The crackle of a car radio turning on. A rough, loud voice—it was Marcus—shouting orders. "You heard the man! Stand down! Everyone back to the cars! Now! The docks are the only priority!"

The sound of footsteps coming toward them stopped. They heard car doors open and slam shut. Engines roared to life. Tires screeched as the cars sped away down the street, the sound quickly fading into the distance.

The cannery was silent once more.

Nobody moved. Nobody even breathed. They just listened to the quiet, unable to believe their trick had worked.

Slowly, Silva sank to his knees and put his head in his hands. Evelyn leaned heavily against the desk, her legs weak with relief. Kaito let out a long, shaky breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Ace walked to the heavy door and peered out through a small crack. The alley was empty. They were gone.

He turned back to his friends. Their faces were pale, but the pure terror was gone, replaced by a stunned amazement. They had faced their worst fear and hadn't backed down.

"They'll be back," Ace said quietly. "When Ramos finds out he didn't send that message, he will be furious. We've bought ourselves a few hours. Maybe a day. No more than that."

He looked at each of them—the coffee expert, the people-person, the tech genius, and the cast-out son. They were all he had. They were his family.

"So, we use the time we have," Evelyn said, straightening up, her voice growing stronger. "We make every single minute count. We hit him so hard he won't know what hit him."

Kaito was already back at his keyboard, his eyes fixed on the financial information on the screen. "Transferring the first million now," he said. "It's going to a secret account in the Cayman Islands. Let's see how he likes it when his money disappears."

Ace walked over and put a hand on Kaito's shoulder. Then he looked at Silva and Evelyn. "This is it. No more hiding. We're at war."

Silva stood up. There was a new look in his eyes. It wasn't fear. It was anger and determination. "Then let's go to war."

They weren't helpless victims anymore. They were fighters. And they had just fired the first shot.

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