The red light in the apartment pulsed with the countdown, while Natasha's fingertips still hovered over the stun gun's trigger.
The silver threads on the ceiling lampshade had just formed the words "experimental subject" when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end—an instinct honed by years as an agent. The danger did not come from a weapon, but from the Watchers hidden in the dark.
She swiftly bent down and picked up the dinner knife at her feet, its blade reflecting the ceiling.
The lettering formed by the silver threads twisted and warped across the blade like some encrypted Morse code.
"The Nanite Swarm's arrangement frequency..." she murmured, her index finger lightly tracing the handle. The instant the blade touched the nanobots, tiny arcs flared across the metal surface.
This was no ordinary holographic projection. Those silver particles were absorbing her body heat and converting it into energy to sustain the illusion.
"The boundary between observer and observed." Natasha repeated the words on the ceiling, then suddenly threw the dinner knife at the door lock.
Amid the crisp clang of blade striking metal, a thick cloud of silver mist poured from the keyhole—just as she suspected, the so-called mechanical lock was only an illusion simulated by nanobots.
She took two steps back and leaned against the wall, her gaze sweeping over the numbers flashing there: 00:08:32.
The static in her earpiece abruptly shifted in tone, and Lin Xiu's voice came through amid interference. "Agent, it's not too late to answer my question."
Natasha looked up at the ceiling light. The silver threads were rapidly rearranging before her eyes, this time forming S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eagle emblem.
"You want me to see the evidence." Her throat moved slightly as she spoke, but her knuckles remained steady around the tactical