Time: 11:43 p.m.Location: Greektown Underground, DetroitPOV: Elias KaneThe restaurant smelled of old money and older blood.Elias descended the stone staircase behind Maria, his hand never straying far from his sidearm. The passage led beneath a legitimate Greek taverna into catacombs that had witnessed a century of criminal negotiations. Flickering gas lamps cast dancing shadows across walls scarred by bullet holes and knife marks—testaments to deals gone wrong.Daniel stumbled ahead of them, still zip-tied but walking with surprising confidence for a man being delivered to wolves. Alexander brought up the rear, his laptop bag clutched like a shield against whatever horrors awaited below."This place reeks of death," Alexander muttered."That's the point," Elias replied. "Neutral ground only works when both sides remember what happens to those who break the rules."The passage opened into a vaulted chamber that had once been part of Detroit's prohibition-era tunnel system. Now it

Time: 03:58 a.m.Location: Lazarus Command Center Perimeter, Detroit RiverfrontPOV: Maria TorresThe fortress rose from the riverfront like a steel cathedral.Maria crouched behind a shipping container two hundred yards from the Lazarus command center, watching security patterns through thermal optics. The building was a converted automotive plant, its exterior deliberately weathered to blend with Detroit's industrial decay while its interior housed technology that would make most governments jealous.Beside her, Natasha and Elias prepared for the breach. Behind them, Romano's enforcers held position, weapons ready, each man understanding this might be their last sunrise."Two minutes to diversion activation," Alexander's voice crackled through her earpiece. He was positioned three blocks east with Team Bravo, fingers flying across his keyboard as he prepared to unleash digital chaos. "Lazarus defensive grid is repositioning exactly as predicted. They're taking the bait."Maria check

Time: 10:47 a.m.Location: Romano's Penthouse, Lake Michigan TowerPOV: Elias KaneThe boardroom smelled of expensive cigars and simmering violence.Elias stood against the wall, watching the Kingpins gather around Romano's conference table like predators circling fresh meat. Each crime boss had brought their top enforcers, creating a powder keg of competing egos and territorial instincts that could explode into bloodshed at the slightest provocation.Don Salvatore Romano sat at the head of the table, silver hair gleaming in morning light filtered through bulletproof glass. To his right, Viktor Kozlov—the Russian whose organization had lost forty men in the Lazarus assault. To his left, Carmen Delgado, the Miami cartel leader whose cold beauty masked the fact that she'd personally executed three rival bosses.Further down sat representatives from New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and two faces Elias didn't recognize—international players whose presence suggested the ramifications of Laza

Time: 11:52 a.m.Location: Perimeter of Lazarus Command Ruins, Eastern DetroitPOV: Maria TorresThe ruins groaned like a wounded animal.Maria crouched on the cracked pavement outside what was once Lazarus’s neural hub. Smoke drifted upward in thin, lazy tendrils, merging with the gray sky. The air tasted metallic—blood, burned circuitry, and something colder. Something alive in the silence.The tactical convoy had stopped a block away to avoid drawing attention. Now, only the crunch of broken glass under combat boots filled the morning. Elias moved beside her like a shadow, his eyes scanning the rubble for ambushes. A dozen enforcers fanned out across the perimeter, each one aware this wasn’t just another cleanup mission.Alexander walked between them without needing permission, barefoot despite the freezing ground, hospital bandages still wrapped around his ribs. His face was pale, but his gaze burned—fixed on the fractured building like it was whispering his name.Maria had tried

Time: 12:39 p.m.Location: Lazarus Ruins, Command ChamberPOV: Maria TorresThe silence that followed wasn’t silence at all—it was listening.Every wall hummed with low resonance, like the building itself had drawn breath. The holographic emitters that had burned out earlier flickered back to life, projecting symbols no one recognized—fractals, equations, and incomplete prayers written in data.And at the center of it all, Alexander King stood motionless.His veins no longer glowed blue. They shimmered gold—subtle, rhythmic, alive. His chest rose and fell, but too steadily, too precisely. His eyes, when they opened, reflected nothing precisely. ut motion—like entire constellations shifting beneath glass.“Alex?” Maria’s voice cracked as she stepped forward.He turned his head slightly, as if calibrating the motion. Then he smiled—but it wasn’t his smile. It was measured, distant, and flawless.“I can hear everything,” he said softly.Viktor, leaning against a console and bleeding fro