Jacob led Anna and Roseline down the fire escape of the neighboring building, his mind racing with the implications of what he had just witnessed. Henry Keaton now had Anna's face, her identity, and worst of all—proof of her connection to Jacob."We need to move faster," Jacob urged, dropping down the last section of the ladder. "They will be mobilizing every resource to track us."They hit the ground in a dark alley between buildings. Leo's car should have been waiting at the end of the street, but the narrow passage stretched empty before them."Where is Leo?" Anna asked, breathing hard from the escape.Roseline checked her phone, frowning. "No signal. They are jamming communications in this entire district."Jacob's instincts screamed danger. Everything about this felt wrong. The alarm that had been too easily triggered, the guards that had arrived too quickly, Henry Keaton's satisfied smile—none of it added up to a simple security breach."The artifact," Jacob said suddenly, looki

"Wait—what do you mean 'we have your wife'?" Jacob's voice cut through the warehouse like a blade. "She is standing right there!"Henry Keaton's smile widened into something predatory. "Is she? Look more carefully, Jacob Krigg."The woman the soldiers held—the one Jacob had thought was Anna—suddenly laughed. Her entire posture changed, becoming more relaxed, more confident. She reached up and pulled off what Jacob now realized was an expertly crafted mask, revealing a completely different face beneath.Another operative. Another replacement."The switch happened earlier than you think," Henry explained, clearly savoring every moment of Jacob's confusion. "During the rooftop escape, you were so focused on reaching the fire escape that you never verified who was actually following you. My people extracted your real wife before you even left the Keaton mansion grounds."Jacob's mind raced backward through the escape sequence. The jump across buildings, the fire escape, the dark alley—the

Jacob crouched on the rooftop across from the warehouse where Henry Keaton was holding Anna. Two hours had passed since he received the coordinates—two hours spent treating Roseline's gunshot wound, contacting his remaining allies, and formulating a rescue plan that had any chance of success."The building has twelve visible guards on the perimeter," Leo reported through the encrypted radio. Despite his earlier compromise, Leo had returned the moment he learned Anna had been taken. His family was safe now, hidden by Roseline's contacts, freeing him to help. "Thermal imaging shows at least eight more inside, plus Henry Keaton and two unknowns in the basement level where Anna is being held."Jacob studied the warehouse through high-powered binoculars. The structure was older than the one where they had been ambushed, with fewer exits and more vulnerable entry points. Henry had chosen this location quickly, which meant his security arrangements would be less comprehensive than his usual

Morning light filtered through the apartment windows as Jacob stood outside Anna's door with a handwritten letter. He had spent three hours composing it, choosing every word carefully to express what he had been unable to say in person.He slid the envelope under the door and waited, listening for any sign that Anna had noticed it. Several minutes passed in silence before he heard footsteps approaching from inside the room.The envelope reappeared under the door, pushed back out unopened.Jacob stared at it, feeling something crack inside his chest. He picked up the letter and walked back to the living room where he had been sleeping on the couch. The wedding ring sat on the coffee table where he had placed it, a constant reminder of what he had lost."She will come around," Carl said from his position by the window. He was pulling security duty personally today, giving Leo and the others time to rest. "These things take time.""How much time?" Jacob asked, turning the envelope over i

Anna spent the rest of the day in her grandfather's study, using his computer to search for information about the Dark Blade. Roseline's visit had planted seeds of doubt about the narrative Henry Keaton had fed her, and Anna needed to find the truth for herself.The first search results were military records—heavily redacted but containing enough information to establish a timeline. Jacob had joined the Himulan Sect at age twelve, trained for five years, then began active service at seventeen. His rise through the ranks was unprecedented.Anna found news articles from international sources that painted a very different picture from what Henry had shown her. The headlines told stories of heroism rather than mindless violence:"Mysterious General Saves Refugee Camp from Massacre""Dark Blade Prevents Biological Weapon Attack on Civilian Population""Legendary Warrior Rescues Forty-Eight Kidnapped Women"Each article described missions where Jacob had accomplished the impossible, usually