The mop water was cold, the kind that numbs your fingers even through the gloves. Ray Martin’s reflection wavered in the grey puddle on the marble floor, a face he barely recognized anymore.Once, that face had been on magazine covers, featured in glowing articles about “the boy genius of the tech future.”Now it belonged to the night janitor of Vance Dynamics, moving unseen through the gleaming glass hallways of a billion-dollar empire that had no idea he still existed.He could have finished early, but habits die hard. Ray still thought like a perfectionist, making every corner of the lobby gleam as if someone’s life depended on it. In his case, it kind of did.This job was the last thing standing between him and sleeping in the backseat of his rusted sedan again, The security cameras above hummed quietly, swiveling now and then,their red eyes tracking movement. Ray knew where their blind spots were he had mapped them on his first week, partly out of boredom, partly out of instinct

Ray stood frozen, lungs heaving, the image of Ella being dragged into the shadows burned into his mind.The freight elevator doors were now just a blank sheet of brushed steel, silent and unmoving, like nothing had happened.He slammed his fist against the call button, Nothing, Not even the whir of machinery, Somewhere behind him, boot steps echoed in the corridor, the tactical men from the holding room were closing in.Ray’s eyes swept the hall, Three doors: one locked with a keypad, one marked Maintenance, and one unmarked. He ran for the unmarked door, yanking it open a narrow stairwell that spiraled up into darkness. The air smelled of rust and stale dust.He took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the pounding in his chest, His brain was trying to calculate: If the elevator wasn’t moving, where had Ella gone?Had it dropped to a hidden level?Was there even such a level in the building’s schematics?Halfway up, voices floated up from below. “Lock down sublevel two. Don’t let him

Rain slicked the cobblestones, turning the alley into a ribbon of black glass, Ray’s breath came out in ragged bursts, vapor curling in the cold night air.The man blocking his way was taller than Ray remembered, broad shoulders wrapped in a charcoal overcoat, collar turned up against the wind. The years had added lines to his face, but the eyes… those were the same. Calculating. Dangerous.“Ray Martin,” the man said softly, as if tasting the name.“You survived.”Ray’s fists clenched, but he didn’t step forward. Not yet. “You ruined me,” Ray said. “And you knew exactly what you were doing.”A ghost of a smirk tugged at the man’s lips. “I gave you a lesson. One you clearly didn’t learn.”From somewhere behind him, a car engine idled low, waiting. The faint glow of its headlights barely reached the alley, but Ray could see shadows moving in the mist. Two. Maybe three more men.Ray’s pulse hammered. “What do you want?”“Same thing I always wanted,” the man said. “The code. And you’re go

The red light was barely visible, buried deep in the shadowed guts of the server rack. It blinked once every three seconds, a heartbeat only Ray understood.No one in the room seemed to notice, The man in black stood with his arms folded, eyes locked on Ray like a hawk, while two guards flanked him, The hum of the servers filled the silence, a steady mechanical drone that masked the faint click of Ray’s fingers on the biometric key drive.The device beeped softly, A green light pulsed on its surface, ready to unlock his most guarded code. “Now,” the man said.Ray swallowed, feeling the cold weight of every eye in the room on him, His hands moved slowly, deliberately stalling for seconds he didn’t have, The blinking red light in the rack had already completed its sixth pulse. “You built this thing,” the man said. “You must be proud.”Ray gave him a tight smile. “I was. Before I realized what people like you could do with it.”The man’s grin didn’t falter. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not

Ray’s cursor blinked against the darkness of his apartment, It was almost midnight. The only light came from his laptop, casting his face in ghostly blue.The decrypted file had been sitting there for the past ten minutes, He had read it twice already, And still, his brain refused to accept it.The words were clean, clinical, the kind of precision you’d expect from corporate archives, but what they described made his stomach twist.The Blood Ledger... A financial record so vast and so detailed that it didn’t just track Vance Dynamics’ legitimate earnings… it documented decades of off-the-books deals, bribery trails, and contracts that could get men killed.There were names in the margins. Names he recognized, Judges. Ministers. CEOs, And in the middle of it, buried halfway down the list, a name Ray had never expected to see: M. R. Ellis.His mentor, Ella’s father, The man who had given him a job when no one else would, Ray’s mouth went dry.If Ellis was in this ledger, it meant he was