The other side of the mirror went completely silent for a long, heavy moment. Clara’s mind raced, and then a sharp smile touched her lips. "Oh, I see. So you don't trust him either.""I do not trust a single soul in this world," the King stated with absolute finality. "And to be completely honest, I do not trust you at all either. But when you willingly gave up your own birth mother to my hit squads tonight, you showed me exactly where your loyalty truly stands. You proved you are willing to do whatever it takes to survive and rise."The deep voice continued, laying out the terms of their new arrangement. "Find out who is giving our highly classified information to the police. Bring me the head of this mole, and maybe, just maybe, I will consider a permanent future partnership between us.""Until then, I have already instructed Butcher to grant you top-level access. As of this exact moment, you will be able to go absolutely anywhere in this building, and all of our facilities and men

Xander reached down aggressively and grabbed the little boy tightly by his small hand, pulling him up from the chair. Brian let out a gasp of fear, dropping his crayon onto the floor.Grace's protective instincts instantly flared up. She stood up from her chair, her legs trembling as she tried to rush forward and step between Xander and the child. "No! You can't take him! Please, leave him alone!"Xander immediately reached into his jacket, pulled out his heavy black pistol, and flashed it directly in front of her face. "Ma'am, please stay back," Xander warned her coldly, his eyes sharp as flint. "I really do not want to hurt you. Sit back down."Grace froze, staring at the dark barrel of the gun. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she had no choice. She stepped back in terror, completely helpless as Xander pulled a crying Brian out of the apartment door.Once they were safely inside the moving elevator, Xander kept a firm grip on the boy's shoulder. He pulled out his encrypted phone wi

But as the two men glared at each other, Alice noticed something strange among the wreckage on the floor. Her eyes locked onto the broken pieces of the shattered CPU. There was a small, foreign component resting inside the wires that was absolutely not supposed to be there."Guys... are you seeing this?" Alice whispered, her voice dropping in shock. She slowly bent down, reaching into the ruined plastic, and picked up a tiny, sophisticated electronic device. A small red light on the component was blinking rhythmically."This exact device is what is sending out the hourly signal," Alice said, holding the bug up into the light.The commander stared at the tiny device, his anger instantly melting into complete confusion. "I... I have never seen that thing in my life. The head IT guy did some routine hardware maintenance on my system just last month. I know absolutely nothing about it."The sudden realization struck Henry like a lightning bolt. It dawned on all three of them at the same t

Henry spun around slowly, his eyes wide with horror as he stared at the lifeless body of Jack slumped against the shattered water cooler. A pool of dark red blood was already beginning to spread across the linoleum floor. The entire bullpen was dead silent. Every single detective stood frozen, their eyes darting between the corpse and the man holding the smoking gun.Henry turned his head, his face twisting into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. He directed his burning anger straight at the precinct commander, taking several aggressive steps toward him."What have you done?!" Henry screamed, his voice cracking under the weight of pure frustration. "You killed him! You just killed our only direct lead to the entire Obsidian Syndicate!"The commander’s hands began to tremble violently. The fierce, arrogant look he usually wore completely vanished, replaced by a pale expression of absolute shock. He lowered his heavy service weapon, his fingers twitching against the metal."I... I didn

The sheer force of Clara’s surprise drop sent Xander crashing hard against the metallic floor. Before he could recover from the impact, Clara slammed her knee into his chest, reached down with lightning-fast speed, and aggressively snatched his gun right out of his holster.She scrambled to her feet instantly, backing away toward the corner of the elevator and pointing the dark barrel of the pistol straight at Xander’s forehead."Don't move!" Clara demanded, her voice shaking with an intense mix of rage and panic.Xander groaned, slowly pushing himself up off the floor and holding his open hands up in the air to show he was unarmed. Brian whimpered in fear, scrambling into the opposite corner of the elevator.Clara’s eyes were wide and wild as she stared at her former associate through the eerie red light. "What did you do to my Aunt Grace?!" she demanded, her voice rising into a frantic scream. "What did you do to her, Xander?! Answer me right now!""Nothing!" Xander replied quickly,