Chapter 41: The Trail of the StrategistThe road from Zurich to Geneva cut through a world of grey mist and whispering forests. Lucas sat in the back seat of the rented car, his eyes fixed on the reflection of the fading skyline. Emily drove in silence beside him, her focus locked on the narrow highway that curved along the lake. Neither of them had spoken much since Zurich. The memory of what they found in that old banker’s house still hung between them like smoke from a dying fire.Inside Lucas’s coat pocket rested the letter that had led them here — a simple sheet of ageing paper signed by a name neither of them expected to see again. Richard Cole. The strategist who had once managed the hidden accounts of Godfrey Foster before vanished from the corporate world without a trace.According to the note, Cole had fled to a small village on the outskirts of Lucerne. The handwriting was trembling, desperate. It warned of danger but offered a key — the final connection between Zenith’s my

Chapter 43: The Edge of ObsessionThe sea outside their window was a restless field of silver, the kind of light that looked alive when it touched the water. Lucas stood there in silence, watching the tide roll against the cliffs below the Monaco villa they had rented under false names. The world felt too still after everything that had happened inside the Zenith building.Behind him, Emily worked at the long oak table, surrounded by scattered papers, a half-eaten plate of food, and the flickering glow of multiple screens. The recovered drive sat in the centre, still encrypted, a single black shape between them.Neither had spoken much since the escape. The tension between them had hardened into something quieter but heavier, a silence full of words that could no longer be safely spoken.Lucas broke it first. “How much longer?”Emily did not look up. “The files are deeper than we thought. Whoever built this didn’t want it decoded.”“That means we’re close.”“It means we’re being watch

Chapter 45: The Silence AfterParis woke slowly after the storm. The morning sky was pale and colourless, and clouds stretched like bruises across the horizon. From the broken glass of Évra Tower, the city below looked peaceful, unaware of the chaos that had unfolded above it.Lucas stood near the shattered window, the cold wind moving through the empty executive suite. He had not spoken since Julian fell. The silence pressed around him, vast and weightless.Emily was on the floor by the console, watching the final lights of the Dominion system flicker and fade. The hum of the servers that had once powered billions of lines of control code was now a dying whisper. The entire network was collapsing inward, fragmenting itself into useless data.“It’s over,” she said quietly, almost to herself.Lucas didn’t answer. His reflection in the glass looked hollow, like a man standing inside someone else’s body.Emily stood slowly, crossing the room. “Lucas, we have to move. The authorities will

Chapter 47: The Ghost in the BoardroomThe rain came down in soft sheets over London, turning the streets into mirrors that caught the light of passing cars. The city was alive with its usual rhythm of wealth and secrecy, and for the first time in months, Lucas Foster felt that rhythm beating through his veins again. He sat in the back seat of a dark sedan, his reflection caught in the tinted window, his eyes shadowed by the city’s blur of neon and glass.Emily sat beside him, scrolling through the guest list on her tablet. “She’s there,” she said. “Evelyn Cross. Chairwoman of Aetherion Group. No public interviews, no online footprint beyond business filings. She doesn’t even appear in social circles. The only photo that exists of her in the past ten years is the one Victor showed us.”Lucas’s gaze didn’t move from the rain outside. “She’ll be there tonight. The Aetherion gala isn’t just a celebration. It’s a declaration.”Emily glanced up. “And what do you think she’s declaring?”Luc

Chapter 49: The Last Step Before the FallThe night outside the Zenith Estate felt strangely still, as if the entire world paused to watch Lucas take his next step into the shadows Evelyn Cross had woven around him. Clouds pressed low over the sky, heavy and unmoving, a quiet warning of the storm that was finally ready to break.Lucas stood at the balcony of his room, staring at the endless stretch of the illuminated estate grounds. The lights glittered across the courtyard, reflecting softly against the polished stone pathways, but they brought him no comfort. Every victory he had clawed back had come at a cost. Every truth he had uncovered had pulled him deeper into a maze Evelyn designed long before he even knew she existed.He knew now that Evelyn Cross had planned everything around him. The financial decline of the company, the betrayal of trusted insiders, the organized leaks meant to discredit him, and the panic within the board. Every step had been engineered to push him to th