He turned back toward the booth, his eyes wild.To prove his point, Valerius grabbed a heavy, hand-painted ceramic vase resting on an ornamental pedestal near the entrance. With a guttural roar, he slammed it against the wall. It shattered into a hundred jagged shards, raining sharp clay over the lacquered floor and the remnants of their meal."You think I care about this kitchen?" Valerius yelled, his chest heaving as he swept his arm across a nearby side table, sending a decorative lantern and a stack of lacquered trays crashing into the woodwork. "I could buy this entire block by midnight and burn it to the ground by sunrise! I want them out! I want this room empty, and I want it now!"Lex finally found his nerve, grabbing Valerius tightly by the shoulder of his blazer. "Val, seriously, stop! Look at them! They aren't even moving! This is getting insane!"It was true. Throughout the entire childish tantrum, neither Tinny nor Elara had shifted an inch.Tinny simply leaned back,

Valerius, still sobbing on his side, tilted his head back just enough to see her standing over them. The sight of her untouched perfection made his shattered ego implode completely."Shut the hell up!" Valerius yelled at her, his voice a pathetic, gurgling screech as blood bubbled at his lips. He sneered up at her with pure, blind malice, abandoning any lingering shred of decorum. "What could you possibly do, you pretentious shadow-born bitch?! You think that because you wear a nice jacket, you can tell us what to do? Lex, call the squad! Dial the damn line! I want these trash-born anomalies buried beneath the city!"Elara didn't even register the insult. Her eyes didn't widen; her breath didn't hitch. Instead, her gaze dropped to the ornamental brass curtain rod partially torn from the wall during Valerius's previous tantrum. With a smooth, deceptively casual motion, she leaned down and claimed the heavy metal rod.WHACK!Before Lex could even press the dial icon, the brass rod

For the first time since Valerius had shattered the door, a faint flicker of genuine interest crossed Elara’s features. The tension in her shoulders, wrought from a grueling afternoon of tracking Syndicate targets through a sniper scope thawed at the words hot spring."A natural geothermal spring?" she asked, her voice dropping into a smoother, more contemplative register. "Completely bio-secured?""Yes! Yes, Madame!" The maître d’ nodded frantically, sensing the sudden shift in the wind. "The tectonic warmth is tapped directly from the planet's mantle.” A bright, desperate smile broke across his face.“There were no digital signals that could penetrate the basalt walls. It is the absolute highest tier of privacy we offer. The resort villa is fully stocked with the finest silks and comforts."Elara glanced over at Tinny. The lethal, predatory look had finally faded from his eyes, replaced by the heavy exhaustion of a long day."A hot spring sounds significantly better than dealing

Zarek’s frown deepened as he absorbed the sheer absurdity of the report. He stared at the blinking red tracking pins on his screen, the image of his hyper-lethal, highly trained siblings casually soaking in a subterranean hot spring while he broke a sweat over logistics flashing through his mind.He let out a long, slow exhale, the tension finally draining from his jaw as a tight, defeated smirk tugged at the corner of his lips."Fine," Zarek muttered, reaching down to swipe a piece of roasted beef from Shaw's tray. "If Vance’s boy was stupid enough to walk into Tinny’s fist after an alley fight, he earned the medical bill. Let them stay off the grid until morning. I'll handle the report myself.""That's the spirit," Shaw grinned, raising a glass from the tray in a mock toast. "Eat up. Tomorrow, the Academy won't know what hit it."*****The sterile white lights of the private medical wing hummed with a maddening, persistent vibration. Inside the high-tier trauma ward, the atmospher

"F-Father..." Valerius whimpered. Big, fat tears poured down his bruised cheeks as he cowered against the mattress like a terrified child. "Why... why did you hit me?""Because your childish, bloated ego nearly cost us the entire Southern Reach infrastructure!" the Director barked, tossing a glowing datapad onto the sheets right over Valerius’s legs. "Look at the ledger! Look at the signatures! As of three hours ago, the Vance Corporation has officially entered a massive, multi-sector partnership with the Blackwood family. Our entire financial survival relies on their logistical backing."He grabbed Valerius by the collar of his medical gown, pulling the boy's swollen face inches from his own cold glare."I sent you to the Academy to build networks, not to tear them down with your pathetic tantrums. You will heal from this, you will swallow your pride, and you will find a way to get along with Tinny Blackwood. If he tells you to walk, you walk. If he tells you to fetch his tea, you f