Zarek froze, his chest heaving as he stared at the image of the gorgeous ginger operative.Then, his strict military discipline kicked in. He forced his breathing to slow, his jaw setting as the crimson flush receded, returning his face to its usual pale mask. With a sudden step forward, Zarek snatched the tablet right out of Shaw's hands. He swiped the screen to black and shoved the device hard against Shaw's chest."Stop messing around, Shaw," Zarek growled, his voice deep and final. He turned his back on them, heading toward his private office. "The next person who mentions her name is handling the lower-grid sewage registries for the next six months. Get the ledgers ready. We're working."Shaw and Tinny just stood there, watching Zarek retreat with identical, highly amused grins. The massive commander practically radiated a localized field of tense energy, his steps just a fraction too heavy to be considered truly calm.Tinny, his curiosity completely overriding his earlier

Director Vance sat at a minimalist glass table, a crystal glass of imported amber liquor resting in his hand. Visually, he looked a millennium away from his bratty, unhinged son; his hair was a stark, immaculate silver, his posture perfectly engineered, and his eyes carried the cold, calculating weight of a man who had built a transit empire from scratch. Yet, beneath that polished exterior, Zarek could detect a faint tightness in the older man's jaw, the lingering stress of covering up Valerius’s constant disciplinary failures. "Mr. Blackwood," Director Vance greeted, his voice a smooth, practiced baritone as he gestured to the empty leather seat across from him. "Please, sit. I appreciate your discretion in meeting out here. The public terminals have been... exceptionally noisy since yesterday afternoon."Zarek slid into the chair, his large frame instantly commanding the space. He didn't touch the refreshments. "I assume you received the automated structural incident report

Zarek didn’t contribute more than a few flat, polite grunts to the dialogue.He simply sat perfectly still, swirling the untouched water in his glass, his dark eyes fixed entirely on the older man. To anyone else, Zarek would have looked like an attentive, stoic business partner listening to a seasoned mentor. But beneath that unreadable, pale mask, his mind operated like a high-frequency tactical terminal, pulling apart the entire landscape of his revenge plot.He watched the animated expressions on Vance’s face, the arrogant tilt of his head, the utter complacency in his laughter. ‘Enjoy it while you can,’ Zarek thought coldly.His mind drifted to the immediate horizon, analyzing the chessboard. What is the next step?First, he would have to brief Tinny and Shaw, though he already dreaded the relentless teasing he would suffer the moment Shaw found out about the blind date. Tinny would immediately look for the structural angle, while Shaw would likely try to hack the girl’s Cor

Tinny stood perfectly still under the heat of the afternoon sun.He let Valerius's words hang in the air for a long, agonizing moment, his expression completely devoid of irritation. Instead, he let out a slow sigh, his shoulders relaxing as if he were thoroughly bored by the sheer predictability of the script.He reached up, casually sliding his data glasses down the bridge of his nose, his dark eyes locking onto Valerius with a sudden, freezing weight."Fine," Tinny murmured, his voice cutting cleanly through the ambient hum of the court's gravity-dampeners. "Let's play. But I don't run circuits for free, Valerius. If we're doing this, we're setting a real baseline."Tinny adjusted his prototype watch, the sleek digital interface catching the sunlight as he tilted his head toward the prince."If I win... I want one percent of your personal holdings in the Vance Corporation transit registry. Transferred to my family ledger by midnight."The entire basketball court went dead silent.

Tinny dropped from the rim, landing smoothly on his feet.He took a long, deep breath, his chest rising and falling as he wiped sweat and blood from his face with the back of his forearm. He didn't celebrate, and he didn't gloat. He simply walked over to the structural beam, retrieved his discarded Academy blazer, and slung it calmly over his shoulder.Turning his dark eyes back toward the baseline, he watched Valerius. The prince was still frozen on the floor, staring at his personal data pad in catatonic horror as the legal notice of the share transfer blinked in high-contrast amber text."Thanks for the match, Valerius," Tinny said smoothly, his voice carrying effortlessly over the stunned silence of the court. "Tell your father the Blackwoods look forward to our first official seat at the executive board meeting this winter."Valerius sat paralyzed for three more seconds, his eyes darting frantically across the glowing notification. Then, something inside him snapped.The horro