Jake stood over the map with a marker in his hand, feeling the strange, steady weight of strategy. This was no longer just about raids and burning crates. The fight had moved into rooms with air-conditioning and affidavits, into banks and court dockets and journalists’ deadlines. It was a different kind of battle—slower, less glamorous, but if they won it, the victory would be harder to steal.“We’re not just freezing an account,” Elena said, laying out the plan. “We’re forcing a paper trail to move publicly. We leak the manifest, we force the chain into daylight, and we make the transfer impossible to launder. We coordinate the injunction to hit minutes before an expected withdrawal, and we have the council ready to execute asset holds the moment the press goes live.”Reeva circled the room like a tide, shoulder still stiff from the docks. “Which means someone has to be there, physically. A courier, a banker, a meeting. We grab the person with the keys to the vault or we make the vau

The city did not sleep after the leak.By dawn, headlines were already burning across every screen: “Councilor Vann Implicated in Financial Collusion—Evidence from Internal Taskforce Leak.” Commentators shouted over each other on morning broadcasts; the council chambers were sealed by midmorning. Every entrance had guards, every exit had cameras.Inside the apartment safehouse, the air buzzed with static and caffeine.Elena sat cross-legged on the floor, her tablet connected to three different secure lines. Lina paced near the window, half-listening to a radio broadcast. Reeva was at the kitchen counter, one arm in a sling, the other loading her sidearm.Jake hadn’t spoken since sunrise. He stood by the sink, watching water drip from a crack in the ceiling. His phone vibrated twice—unknown numbers. He ignored both.Finally, Cal’s voice broke through the noise over comms. “They’ve confirmed it. Vann’s facing an internal tribunal. But the council’s spinning it like he acted independentl

The storm followed them east.Wind lashed against the windshield as the van tore down the coastal highway, waves slamming against the concrete barriers below. Inside, the only light came from Elena’s tablet—a blue glow flickering across their faces. The screen showed a single pulsing dot moving across the map.“That’s the receiver,” she said. “Offshore, about forty miles out. A floating relay station disguised as a weather buoy.”Reeva frowned. “Who hides a data relay in the middle of the ocean?”“Someone who doesn’t want to be found,” Elena said.Jake’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “And we’re finding them anyway.”Lina leaned forward from the back seat. “How do we even reach it?”“There’s a coastguard depot at Verran Bay,” Reeva said. “If we get there, we can take a patrol skiff. It’s unregistered, fast, and built for storms.”Jake nodded. “Then that’s our plan. No stops.”Elena’s tablet chimed. “Hold on.” Her eyes darted across new lines of code. “The transmission Hassan s

Silence.Then a heartbeat.Jake’s eyes snapped open. For a moment, there was only whiteness—floating dust, drifting debris, a ringing in his ears that swallowed all thought. The vault was gone. The floor had collapsed into a crater of twisted steel and glowing shards. Smoke rose from what used to be the core.He coughed, forcing himself upright. His body screamed in protest, but he was alive. Somehow.“Elena?” His voice was raw. “Reeva? Lina!”A groan answered from nearby. Reeva was half-buried under a chunk of ceiling, blood streaking down her temple. He rushed over, shoving the metal aside.She blinked at him through the haze. “You look like hell.”He almost smiled. “You’re not much better.”She gritted her teeth, sitting up. “The others?”He scanned the room. Elena’s tablet was still flickering faintly amid the rubble, its cracked screen throwing blue light over a hand—small, shaking, but moving.Jake ran.He pulled debris away until Elena gasped for air, coughing violently. “Don’t

The silence didn’t last.By dawn, it had turned into something heavier—an emptiness that felt almost unnatural. No hum of power grids, no rhythmic buzz of neon, no sound of traffic echoing between the towers. The city was still, as if the world had stopped breathing.Jake stood at the edge of the Northern Outpost’s roof, staring across the barren expanse. The wind carried a dry chill, whispering through the rusted rails. In the distance, smoke still curled from collapsed towers, and the faint smell of ozone clung to everything.Below, Reeva and Lina sorted through the remaining supplies. Elena sat cross-legged beside the burnt-out mainframe, her face pale but determined, a notepad open on her lap.“You’re supposed to be resting,” Jake said quietly when he came down.She didn’t look up. “I don’t rest. I rebuild.”He almost smiled. “You think it’s that easy?”Her pen paused. “It’s never easy. But it’s all that’s left.”---They moved out by noon, heading south again. Without vehicles or