"You think you're the only one who gives a shit about him? He's my best friend! But I trust him! I trust him to survive because that's what he does. He told us to get the ledger to safety, and that is exactly what we are going to do!""You're a coward!" Elara stepped back into the cabin, her hands trembling as she drew her pistol from its holster. "You're just terrified to go back!""Call me whatever you want!" Shaw shouted, refusing to ease off the accelerator. "But I am keeping us alive! We get to the safehouse, we secure the ledger, and then, and only then—we figure out a way to get him out! But we do it smart!"Elara stared at the back of Shaw's head, her chest heaving, the weight of the gun heavy in her hand. The truck sped deeper into the dark forest, leaving the flashing alarms of the facility far behind them in the storm."Smart?" Elara let out a bitter, breathless laugh. "You call running away smart? If we leave him there for even an hour, Vance will have him in chains. They

If the guards expanded their search perimeter into the surrounding woods, they would find the crashed bike and then they would find him.Zarek lay perfectly still under the massive, rusted diesel tank, holding his aching ribs with one hand. He had been forced to ditch his rifle in the brush; he was entirely exposed. He waited, barely breathing, until the rhythmic thud of heavy combat boots finally faded into the distance. The sweeping flashlights stopped cutting through the mud near his face.The immediate threat had passed, but a different enemy was creeping up on him: hypothermia and blood loss.‘They should be at the main highway by now,’ Zarek thought, his mind methodically calculating the speed of the armored transport against the treacherous mountain roads. ‘Vivienne knows the shortcuts. Elara will keep her moving. They are clear.’The thought brought a grim, brief flicker of satisfaction, but it vanished as a sharp wave of heat flared in his left shoulder. He leaned his hea

His vision started to turn black at the edges.He tried to claw at the guard’s thick gloves, but the grip was too strong. Thinking fast, Shaw reached down to his belt, his slippery fingers finding his heavy tactical flashlight. Gripping it backward, he smashed it violently over his own shoulder, striking the guard square in the forehead.The guard groaned, his grip loosening just enough. Shaw twisted around, drove his elbow straight into the man's throat, and delivered a brutal headbutt to his nose. The cartilage broke with a sickening crunch. The man staggered backward, clutching his bloody face and crying out.Shaw didn't waste a second. He snatched up his dropped rifle and cracked the butt of the gun across the man's chest, sending him face-first into the mud next to his unconscious partners.Shaw stood alone in the dark yard, panting heavily as blood and mud dripped from his face. His ribs burned, and his hands shook violently from the adrenaline."Bait..." Shaw wheezed, wi

"So, here's the deal," Troll said, taking a half-step forward, his hands still raised. "The main road is crawling with local police, triggered by the automated emergency broadcast. If you try to walk down this mountain alone, bleeding like that, they'll pick you up before you hit the valley. We have an unlisted, fully mechanical armored transport parked in the lower garage. No GPS. No tracking."Zarek narrowed his eyes, his grip on the rifle tightening slightly. "Why?""Because you have the history, and your friends have the current ledger," Troll said, his voice dropping to a sharp, business-like tone. "We want a clean exit out of the country, and we want our names wiped from the modern files before you hand them over to the authorities.”“Give us that guarantee, and we'll get you out of here right now. Follow us, Zarek. Let's make it make sense for both of us. We give you a ride to your safe house, you save your own life, and we all walk away from the ashes."Zarek didn't move immed

They both crashed into the mud.Shaw locked his fingers around the guard’s rifle, forcing the barrel upward just as a stream of bullets fired uselessly into the dark canopy above. With a fierce yell, Shaw delivered a brutal headbutt straight into the center of the guard’s tactical mask, shattering the visor. The man groaned, his grip loosening, and Shaw followed up with a vicious right hook to the jaw.The guard went completely limp beneath him.Shaw lay across the man for a long moment, the pouring rain washing the thick, black mud from his face. The ravine was entirely silent now, save for the steady, deafening roar of the storm. Five guards lay scattered around him in the dirt.Slowly, painfully, Shaw dragged himself to his knees, clutching his screaming ribs. He looked up at the dark ridge, knowing he had cleared a path, but he was completely spent. Using his rifle like a cane to push himself up, he forced his body to move, limping out of the ravine toward the lower edge of