The moment the cuffs came loose, Max stayed still. Timing was everything.Red Fang noticed and raised an eyebrow. "You planning to share?""You're gonna love this," Max smirked.He leaned forward as Max subtly traced his foot against the floor of the truck. It was a hunch, but he had learned one thing about elite prisons, vaults, and secret organizations: They always had escape tunnels.His boot knocked against something hollow.Red Fang's eyes lit up. "Oh, that's promising."Max pressed his heel against the seam and pushed. The hidden panel beneath them shifted.Red Fang grinned. "I love it when you're right."The truck hit another bump, and in that split second, Max struck hard with his foot. The panel gave way, revealing a narrow tunnel beneath.Red Fang whistled. "That's not regulation.""Interpol really needs to do a better job inspecting their vehicles," Max muttered.One problem down. Now for the guards.The transport truck slowed as it hit a sharp turn through the Swiss mountai

The moment the first shot rang out, the Icelandic facility descended into chaos.Bullets zipped through the cold air, ricocheting off metal walls and shattering equipment.Red Fang moved like a phantom through the smoke, his blade flashing as he tore through the council’s elite strike team.Gunfire erupted from all sides, turning the once-silent archive into a battleground.Max ducked behind a steel crate, yanking Emily down with him as bullets whizzed past their heads.“This is exactly why I don’t trust Elliot’s people!” he snapped.Emily wiped dust off her face and gave him a deadpan look.“Really? Because I thought this was exactly how you like to spend your afternoons.”Elliot, crouched behind a metal column, reloaded his gun with smooth efficiency.“Less talking, more surviving,” he muttered before firing a precise shot that took down an enemy soldier.Max peeked over the crate, his mind racing.The council’s strike team was better trained, better armed. They needed an escape. Hi

Max knew that this mission would be their most dangerous yet. Breaking into a deep-sea black site with unknown defenses, an AI security system, and an army of council operatives? They needed the best.And the best weren’t easy to find.Red Fang, standing in front of a table covered with mission files, pointed to the first profile. “Meet Ghost. Former CIA black ops. Rumor is, he once infiltrated this exact prison and made it out alive.”Elliot raised an eyebrow. “Then why isn’t he dead?”Max smirked. “Because he’s Ghost.”Emily shook her head. “That’s not an answer.”Red Fang ignored her and tossed another file onto the table. “Next, we’ve got Kade Mercer. Deep-sea engineer. Used to design offshore defense systems before he… let’s just say sold his talents to some questionable people.”Molly skimmed the file. “He’s been in hiding for five years.”Max nodded. “Because he knows how to break into places like this.”“And the last?” Elliot asked.Molly slid her laptop forward, revealing a l

The deep-sea prison was unlike anything Max had ever seen.Cold. Sterile. A place not meant for the living.The air smelled of salt and metal, a mix of ocean dampness and antiseptic that clung to his lungs.The deeper they moved into the facility, the more he felt like they were walking through a graveyard where the dead still breathed.He tightened his grip on his weapon.His father was somewhere in this tomb. Buried, but not gone.Red emergency lights flickered overhead, casting shifting shadows along the corridors.The walls were smooth steel, marked with serial numbers instead of cell doors.This wasn’t a prison built for punishment—it was a vault built to erase people.Max clenched his jaw. Not today.Ghost, leading the team ahead, held up a fist.They all froze, pressing against the walls.Max could hear them before he saw them—the steady march of boots on metal.A squad of heavily armed guards patrolled the hall, their rifles glowing with thermal scopes.They weren’t normal sec

The salty ocean air hit Max like a freight train as he gripped the railing of the disguised cargo ship, staring out at the vast, unrelenting ocean.His mind was still racing.The prison had collapsed beneath them, but it didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like the start of something worse.Behind him, Elliot and Reginald were leaning against the ship’s hull, both recovering in their own ways.Elliot was gritting his teeth, clearly exhausted but refusing to show weakness.Reginald, still pale and bruised, couldn’t hide the weary look in his eyes.Max knew his father was struggling, but there was a fire in him—something that made Max believe he’d fight until the very end.“You think we’re safe now?” Elliot’s voice broke through Max’s thoughts.Max turned. “We’ve made it out of hell, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”Elliot narrowed his eyes. “They won’t stop hunting us.”Before Max could respond, Molly’s voice crackled through the comms.“Max, you need to see this.”Molly’s face fli