Adrian Hart had learned long ago that silence could be louder than gunfire.The operations room was quiet yet his mind roared with overlapping voices; memories, timelines, and unanswered questions crashing into one another without mercy, while he stood alone before the wide glass board mounted on the wall with his sleeves rolled up and his dark eyes fixed on the web of names, dates and locations carefully arranged before him - Seraphina, Elena Hart, Victor Blackwood, and Cortez.Four names that should never have intersected this violently, yet here they were.Adrian dragged a hand down his face with exhaustion settling into his bones because he had slept barely two hours since Elena’s disappearance, and even that had been restless, fractured by flashes of CCTV footage and memories he had buried too deeply to stay buried forever.This wasn’t just grief but a pattern.He picked up a marker and circled Seraphina again, slower this time and deliberately because her disappearance had been

The room was colder than it should have been not because of the temperature because Cortez spared no expense when it came to comfort but because of the silence sitting heavy between the two men inside it.Victor Blackwood stood near the tall window with hands clasped behind his back staring out at the city lights below as though they might suddenly explain everything that wasn’t making sense while his jaw was tight and his shoulders rigid with the faintest tick pulsing at his temple. Cortez sat in his leather chair behind him with one ankle resting over the opposite knee, and fingers drumming slowly against the armrest ‘Tap. Tap. Tap’It was the sound of impatience.“This isn’t how it’s supposed to look” Victor said finally breaking the silence.Cortez didn’t respond immediately but his eyes remained on the far wall unfocused and calculating “No” he agreed at last, “It isn’t”Victor turned from the window “He should’ve reacted by now”“Yes” Cortez said calmly, “He should have”Victor

Elena Hart screamed though it wasn’t a cry of fear or panic but was sharp, deliberate, and loud enough to slice through the quiet corridors outside the locked room.“Ah….!” she screamed again staggering backward as if she’d lost her balance, “Help! Someone… help me!”Footsteps thundered almost immediately while the door rattled as keys clanged, hurried and tense.“What’s going on?” a guard barked through the door, “Ms. Hart?”Elena didn’t answer right away but let out another strained sound, softer this time as if she were struggling to breathe, and then the door swung open and two guards rushed in with their weapons lowered but ready, and eyes scanning her body, the room and the corners.“She’s fine” one of them muttered after a quick assessment, “No injuries”Elena leaned against the bed with one hand clutching her chest breathing heavily while her hair was slightly disheveled, and her face pale but her eyes were alert.The second guard frowned “What happened, ma’am?”Elena lifted h

Victor Blackwood did not go to Cortez casually because nothing about this meeting was casual, not the time, not the location and not even the way Victor carried himself as he stepped into the Cortez’s private lounge.Victor paused just inside the doorway letting his eyes adjust.Cortez was already seated there, relaxed and waiting, and that alone unsettled Victor.Cortez sat with one arm resting on the back of the chair, fingers loose, and his expression unreadable, while his presence filled the room without effort and with the kind of authority that didn’t need to announce itself. When his gaze lifted to Victor, it was slow and assessing as though he were examining a piece on a chessboard rather than a man standing before him.Victor inhaled once steadying himself, and walked forward.No pleasantries were exchanged, Cortez didn’t gesture for him to sit and he didn’t speak first.The silence stretched intentional and suffocating before Victor broke it.“I want to revise one part of th

Victor’s sleek black car glided silently through the city streets with the early morning fog curling around the tires like a ghostly ribbon while Elena sat rigidly in the backseat with her hands folded neatly on her lap and her expression unreadable because the events of the past days; the hijacking, the locked room, and the tense negotiations with Victor still clung to her like a heavy coat but she had survived, and she had survived in ways that ensured her plans were intact and her position secure.Victor glanced at her briefly from the driver’s seat with a small satisfied smile tugging at his lips “We’re almost there” he said smoothly, “Once you’re back at your home, everything will fall into place. You follow our arrangement perfectly… no Adrian, no press, no deviations. Just… silence… and that’s how you stay safe.”Elena’s eyes narrowed faintly “I understand” she said with her voice calm and measured but inside her chest a storm of emotions churned because she was relieved to be