The dawn light spilled over the yacht’s deck as Ethan Cross surveyed the calm Mediterranean horizon. The capture of Marcus Verrelli and the disarming of his final bomb had been a decisive victory—one they’d achieved with precision and resolve. But as the gentle waves rocked The Sovereign, Ethan sensed the calm was fleeting. The Consortium’s fall had created a vacuum, and wherever power waned, others moved in to claim it. Lyra joined him at the rail, her eyes thoughtful. “Verrelli’s in custody,” she said softly. “But his network extends far beyond what we’ve seen. Ghost accounts, shell corporations, digital backdoors—it’s like trying to snuff out embers in a hurricane.” He nodded. “We need to map the remainder of his empire and ensure no embers ignite new flames.” His comm crackled to life. It was Valen’s voice, taut with urgency. “Ethan, you&rsquo

The air inside the temporary bunker was heavy with silence. Ethan stood over the table, his hands braced on either side of the holographic map that flickered faintly in the dim light. Across the table, Gabriel paced like a caged animal, his mind racing through every possible scenario. “They knew we were coming,” Ethan muttered. Nina looked up from the files she’d recovered from the isolated server room, her brow furrowed. “Not just knew. They laid a trap—one specifically designed for us. This isn’t reaction. It’s orchestration.” From the far side, Cole leaned against the wall, arms crossed, his usual sarcasm muted by the weight of what they had just survived. “So what are we saying? There’s a mole?” “No,” Ethan said flatly. “It’s not just a mole. It’s someone inside the system. Someone high enough to acces

Ethan Cross was running out of time. Not metaphorically—his wristwatch displayed a ticking countdown. Two hours until the encrypted node inside the Consortium’s safehouse wiped itself clean. All evidence, all identities, gone. Two hours to break in, crack the vault, and extract the hard drive that held the Consortium’s kill list. But it wasn’t just the clock pressuring him. It was her. Isadora Vale. She’d disappeared twenty-four hours ago after decrypting the blueprint of the safehouse. Vanished off-grid, no messages, no pings, no digital footprint. The team feared the worst, but Ethan knew better. Isadora didn’t go dark without a reason. He could feel it in the marrow of his bones—she was inside the lion’s den. “Team, status,” he barked into his comms. Lex’s voice crackled through first.<

Rain drummed on the cathedral roof in a steady, unrelenting rhythm as Dominic Virelli stood beneath the fractured stained-glass window, his eyes fixed on the figure kneeling in the center of the sanctuary. It was Evelyn. Bound at the wrists, her pale skin bruised and smeared with blood, she looked up at him—not with fear, but with fire. “I told you,” she hissed, her voice cracked. “You don’t control how this ends.” Dominic’s jaw twitched. His coat, soaked from the downpour outside, clung to his frame. The silence around them was broken only by the subtle hum of the device embedded in the altar behind him—The Scepter Relay. A relic of a past Dominion, meant to amplify consciousness and break the final seal. Evelyn’s blood had been the key. “I don’t want to control how it ends,” Dominic said, his voice low. &ld

The winds of change stirred across the continents, their breath felt in every corner of the world. The Lightkeepers, once a scattered group of misfits, had now woven themselves into the very fabric of society, a quiet revolution unfolding beneath the surface. Their final program had been activated, and the world was on the cusp of something monumental. Yet, as with all revolutions, the greatest challenges often came not from the enemy without, but from the darkness within.Dominic stood at the balcony of the safehouse, overlooking the skyline of Verona. The early morning mist clung to the edges of the city, and for a brief moment, everything seemed still, peaceful. The sun’s first rays cast a soft glow over the stone streets, a reminder that the past still held sway in the present. But beneath this veneer of serenity, something stirred—a sense of purpose that had only just begun to crystallize.Evelyn walked up beside him, her silhouette framed by the light. She placed a hand on his s