Novels by Mc - Xav

Three weeks later, Ethan was in a new space, standing on his feet. It was a large, empty warehouse on the city's industrial waterfront. It smelled of old oil and dust.Kael walked in, followed by six men and two women. They all had the same look, alert and professional."Sir," Kael said. "The first team."Ethan faced them. He recognized a few faces from the raid on the chemical plant. "You already know why you're here."A woman with short-cropped hair, Mara, spoke. "Cleanup duty. You're building a unit.""More than a unit," Ethan said. "An independent agency. No other ties and no oversight. Our only mission is to find and dismantle organizations like the Syndicate before they can become a threat.""How do we operate?" one of the men, Jaxon, asked."We have resources… I mean the funds seized from Syndicate accounts. We have equipment from their facilities. We will start with the data we captured, and then we can follow every lead. A scientist who escaped. A bank account we missed. A s

The helicopter landed on a rocky outcropping just before dawn. Ethan and Linda rushed into the thin, cold air.“He’s here,” Linda said, consulting a tracker in her hand. “The signal from the data chip that we planted on Alexander is coming from within the mountain. From a private bunker.”Ethan looked up at the large mountain. “He thinks he’s safe. He’s wrong.”“‘The bunker is a panic room for Syndicate brass. It has supplies, communications, and one exit. He has trapped himself.’”“Good. Let’s goThey spotted the entrance in the guise of a rock outcropping. There was a steel door attached to the rock. It was sealed.“Biometric lock,” Linda noted. “Retina and palm print. Alexander’s.”Ethan studied the door. “Then we make him open it.”He reached into his pack and brought out a small explosive charge, and set it on the hinge mechanism. “Stand back.”The explosion was loud in the silent mountains. Metal made a clanging noise. The door was still on its hinges, only now it was twisted an

The helicopter flew through the night. Below them, the city lights faded away. They were replaced by the dark, silent shapes of the Northern Zenith mountain range. Ethan was riding in the passenger seat as Linda flew the helicopter. She was indeed a woman of many skills. "He will run," Linda said, her eyes focused on the dark peaks ahead. "Alexander. He knows it is over." "Let him run," Ethan replied, his voice low. "There is no place he can hide that I will not find him. But first, we stop the Ares Project." The Syndicate's files were now in the hands of the authorities, and police would at this very moment be raiding the Grey Corporation tower. Yet Ethan knew that the real danger was here, in this mountain. An army of angry, unstable super-soldiers could not be allowed to exist. Using the codes of Valerius, they found the secret entrance: a hidden tunnel behind a waterfall that led deep into the heart of the mountain. Inside, the air was cold, unpleasantly smelling of some ruste

The Grey Corporation tower was a tall spear of glass standing high above the city. In his penthouse office, Alexander Grey watched the sunset. He held a glass of expensive whiskey. He felt safe and powerful. A soft beep came from his desk. It was a security alarm. Someone was in the sub-level parking lot. Alexander felt annoyed. He had thought that it was just a rat. He spoke into the comms device. "Security, report." Nobody answered. "Team Alpha, report." His voice was sharper now. But there was only silence. Then, from his office speaker, a new voice emerged. Calm and well-known. Ethan. "They can't hear you, Alex." Alexander froze. His hand tightened on the glass. "We're having a conversation," Ethan's voice went on. "You, me, and the man you call the Hound. Send him down to the server room. Now." ... Ethan was standing in the server room on the 40th floor. It was chilly inside the room, and the humming of the machines could be heard everywhere. Blinking lights were everywh

Ethan dumped Valerius’s unconscious body on the floor of the new, temporary safe house. It was a dusty warehouse. Linda walked in. She had a cut on her forehead but was otherwise unharmed. She looked at Valerius, then at Ethan. “You captured him.” “Kael’s team?” Ethan asked. “They arrived just in time. We lost the clinic, but we’re intact.” She looked at him with a new respect. “You really expected to see him.” “He taught me everything I know.” Ethan poured a bucket of cold water on Valerius’s face. The man sputtered awake. He coughed, looking around the warehouse. His eyes landed on Ethan. Hatred burned in them. “You lost,” Ethan said simply. “This is a setback. Nothing more,” Valerius spat. “Where is the main Ares facility? The real one.” Valerius laughed. “You think I’ll tell you?” Linda stepped forward. She held a syringe. “You will. This is actually stimulating the nerves. It lowers everything. Makes the subject very… talkative. It’s found in your own research.” Valeriu

Ethan stood frozen. The image of Linda’s clinic burning was seared into his mind.Kael grabbed his arm. “Sir! We have to go! The EMP!”Valerius smiled. “What will it be, my boy? Your new protector? Or your futile revenge?”Ethan’s eyes met Valerius’s. The confusion and anger coalesced into a single, sharp point of focus. He made a decision.“Kael,” Ethan said, his voice low. “Get to the extraction point. Now.”“But sir—”“That’s an order!”Kael hesitated, then nodded. He turned and ran, his men covering his retreat.Valerius looked pleased. “A wise choice. Now, drop your weapon.”Ethan slowly bent down to place his gun on the floor. But he never took his eyes off Valerius. “You misunderstood. I’m not surrendering.”“Then she dies.”“You’re a strategist, Valerius. You taught me that. You taught me to always have a counter-move.”“And what is yours?” Valerius sneered.“Linda isn’t at the clinic.”On the monitor, the feed of the burning clinic flickered. A new group of figures emerged fr

They moved fast. Robert's heart was louder than a drum in his ears, even louder than the alarms. Garret reached the wall first. He pulled the metal lever from its hiding place. He jammed it into the cracks between the jumbled stones. He pulled with all his strength. His muscles bulged. "Come on!" Leo whispered, his voice tight with panic. With a grinding sound, one large stone shifted. Then another. A dark, narrow hole opened up in the wall. It was just big enough for a person to squeeze through. Cold, damp air flowed out from it. "You go first, Leo!" Robert said, looking back toward the chaos. The Wardens were still focused on the water. But it wouldn't last. Leo didn't hesitate. He rushed deep down into the hole and disappeared into the darkness. "Go!" Garret said to Robert. Robert shook his head. "And you go next. I'm right behind you." Garret nodded. He dropped the lever and squeezed his big body shape into the opening of the hole. It was a tight fit, but he made it throug

The following week was the longest of Robert's life. Every clang of the pickaxe felt like a countdown. Every glance from a Warden was a cause for accusation. They followed Robert's plan perfectly. They were model workers who did not look at the blind spot. They did not go near the jumbled wall. Instead, they kept their heads down and their eyes empty. Robert watched Supervisor Kael. The man visited the cavern two more times. He would stand and watch, his cold eyes fixed on the workers. He never looked at Robert again. Robert hoped it was a good sign. He hoped Kael had lost interest. Inside, Robert's mind was working. He was making a new plan and a better one. The first plan had been about speed, but the new plan would major on trickery. During the meal break on the sixth day, Robert whispered to Garret and Leo. "The shift change is still our best time," he said. "But we can't just run. Kael will expect that now." "So what do we do?" Garret asked. "We give them what they ex

The large metal gate groaned open. The line of Wardens stood at attention. A new figure walked into the cavern. He was not a Warden. He was a man, tall and thin, dressed in a sleek, grey uniform. He had no helmet. His face was sharp and cold. His eyes scanned the room like he owned everything in it. He was followed by two taller Wardens with gold markings on their black armour. The man stopped in the centre of the cavern. The only sound was the hum of the machines. "Workers," the man said. His voice was smooth and loud, without a machine to help it. It filled the whole space. "I am Supervisor Kael." No one moved. No one breathed. "It has come to my attention that there has been... unusual activity," Kael said. He started to walk slowly between the workstations. His shiny black boots clicked on the stone. "A loss of efficiency. Small amounts of crystonium are going missing." Robert's blood turned to ice. He kept his face blank. He did not look at Garret or Leo. Kael sto

The discovery of the possible tunnel changed everything. The grey soup tasted the same. The pickaxe was just as heavy. But now, every swing has a purpose. They were not just mining crystonium. They were mining for their freedom. They needed a plan. A good one. Robert knew it had to be perfect. One mistake, and the Wardens would kill them. That night in their cell, they whispered. "The tunnel is small," Leo said. "We will have to crawl. We don't know how long it is. And we don't even know where it goes." "It leads out," Garret said firmly. "It has to." "We need to be sure this tunnel is something we can get out from, very quickly," Robert said. "When the time comes, we will not need to start worrying about it." Garret nodded. "The stones are loose. I can make a tool. A strong lever from a piece of metal. I saw a broken machine part near the west wall. I can try to get it." "Good," Robert said. "Leo, you keep watching the Wardens' patterns with me. I think we have to find

Afterwards, in the brightness of the day, Robert and Garret kept a close watch on Leo. He was working slowly with the pickaxe. His hands bled quickly. But he did not complain. He worked in silence, his face overshadowed by a feeling of a painful and necessary determination. Robert respected that. When the time for the blind spot came, Robert nodded to Leo. The three of them moved toward the water barrel by the big pump. They stood in the unseen corner. "For two minutes, no one watches us here," Robert explained quietly. Leo looked around, his face pained with sheer amazement. "How did you find this?" "I watched," Robert said. "They follow a pattern. Their movement is predictable." Leo's eyes, sharp behind his glasses, crossed through the cavern. "Like a clockwork," he whispered. "A routine." "Yes," Robert said, surprised. Leo understood quickly. "We are collecting rocks," Garret said, showing Leo the crack in the wall. "We hide them here." "Why?" Leo asked. "We don

The next day, the hidden rock was all Robert could think about. It was a secret and a small piece of the pits that the Wardens did not control. It was power.Robert drew his hands out of the shirt he wore, trying to confirm his strength. "I don't know my limit yet." During the shift, he watched the blind spot by the pump. He timed the Wardens again. His mind, sharp from years of study, tracked their movements like a math equation. Two minutes and seven seconds of freedom was enough. At the meal break, he whispered to Garret. "We need to get more," Robert blinked, his face twisted with an uncertain frown. "More what? Rocks?" Garret looked confused. "Why? They're already everywhere." "I don't mean you should get more of them for our use. Just to hide," Robert explained. "We can take small pieces when we are able to. We hide them in the crack and nobody will know." Garret thought about it. "What for? It's just another way of exhausting our strength." "I don't know yet," Robert sa