Harper's phone lit up with an encrypted signal. One beep. Then Kara's emergency code scrolled across the screen: DU-493: PACKAGE LIVE. ENEMY IN PURSUIT. SEEKING EXTRACTION. He didn’t blink. He knew what that meant. He turned to the tactical officer standing near the Romanov mansion garage. “Prep the interceptor. Get eyes on Kara’s fallback route. Zain’s men will be there first.” Three minutes later, Harper was gone. Harper's phone lit up with an encrypted signal. One beep. Then Kara's emergency code scrolled across the screen: DU-493: PACKAGE LIVE. ENEMY IN PURSUIT. SEEKING EXTRACTION. He didn’t blink. He knew what that meant. He turned to the tactical officer standing near the Romanov mansion garage. “Prep the interceptor. Get eyes on Kara’s fallback route. Zain’s men will be there first.” Three minutes later, Harper was gone. Kara stumbled through the abandoned subway access corridor, blood darkening her coat. The metallic briefcase was still clutched to h

The room was dim, its only light a stark bulb overhead. The walls were lined with black acoustic panels — soundproofed, cold.Braise sat cuffed to the steel chair, his lip swollen, one eye slightly bruised from the impact with the wall. Across from him, Harper sat with a blank notepad and a steaming mug of bitter coffee. “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you,” Harper said, calm. “Romanovs have a habit of leaving behind… messes.”Braise gave a dry, defiant smile. “You don’t scare me, detective.”“No,” Harper replied. “But Zain should.”That wiped the smile from Braise’s face. Harper leaned in. “Tell me this — how long do you think it’ll take Zain to decide you’re more useful dead than talking?”Silence.Then Braise’s jaw twitched.Harper tapped his pen.“Amelia Reyes. Pregnant. Lied to Aiden. Colluded with you. Who else was in on it?”Braise gave a sardonic laugh. “You think I’m going to betray her?”Harper didn’t blink. “I think you already did.”He slid a photo across the table — a stil

The hum of fluorescent lights buzzed above as Braise sat shackled to a steel table, his expression unreadable. His hoodie hung open, revealing faint bruises on his collarbone. Harper had kept him under heavy surveillance — not out of cruelty, but because Braise wasn’t just a rogue operative.He was Zain’s shadow.And now, a potential key to dismantling the entire machine.Detective Harper stepped into the observation room, holding a fresh report. “Let’s see if our friend is still pretending to be silent.”A technician entered behind him and handed over a secured tablet. “Sir, we intercepted a signal. Encrypted message. It pinged Braise’s old burner line — routed through a ghost network.”Harper’s brow furrowed. “From who?”The tech hesitated. “Amelia Reyes.”Harper stiffened.“Play it.”The voice that followed was shaky, raw, and desperate. “Braise… if you’re hearing this, it means you didn’t abandon me entirely. Zia’s gone. Zain’s gone silent. I think I’m being watched… maybe worse.

Aiden stood at the head of the dark-glass strategy table, a wide digital display casting pale light across the faces around him. Lorenzo, calm but visibly troubled. Gregory, pale from the weight of past treacheries. And Silvana, her eyes fierce even through the fatigue of pregnancy.“We’re outnumbered on paper,” Aiden began, “but not in intelligence.”He tapped a file on the table. A holographic screen ignited, revealing a series of encrypted transactions and anonymized offshore accounts, all tracing back to Alaric Stavos.“This is our angle,” Silvana said. “Zain’s money trail. Sloppy for someone who prides himself on discretion.”Lorenzo leaned forward. “We strike publicly. During the board vote. But not with accusations — with facts. Let them hear it, see it… choke on it.”Gregory cleared his throat. “He’ll deny it. Spin it as a strategic hedge. The board won’t move unless the evidence is beyond manipulation.”“Then we burn his escape routes,” Aiden said coldly. “Let him know there

The mansion had grown quieter since the board’s upheaval. But Zia, ever curious and observant, was wide awake.Cuddled in bed with her tablet, she was supposed to be reviewing her assignments—but instead, she had opened a hidden terminal Aiden had once let her peek into. It was only meant for diagnostics… but Zia had figured out more than anyone knew. “Let’s see if I can find where that weird ping came from again…” she whispered.Earlier that day, she had noticed a strange flash on the home security system—a small flicker that didn’t match any of the usual patterns. She’d saved it. Now she was trying to trace it.Her fingers tapped quickly. Behind her, her AI assistant—a small stuffed cat named Whiskers—blinked to life. Aiden had given her the AI toy as a birthday gift months ago, never expecting she’d start modding it.“Whiskers,” she whispered, “run local port ghost-check again.”The cat blinked. “Querying anomaly logs. Cross-referencing internal firewall bounces... anomaly located