The morning sunlight barely pierced through the thick glass of Alex’s new office. It was a fortress in the sky, sleek black walls, panoramic city view, and a silence heavy enough to make any man feel powerful or paranoid. For Alex Stanton, it was both.He stood by the window, coffee in hand, staring down at the pulsing veins of New York. Cars zipped below like silver ants, unaware that empires could rise and crumble in the hands of a single man watching from above.He had won, for now.The board had voted in his favor the previous night, naming him Acting CEO of Stanton Industries. It was a title that carried both prestige and danger, power made you visible, and visibility painted targets on your back.Claire entered quietly, the soft click of her heels echoing against the marble floor. Her presence had become a constant, steady, graceful, sharp as glass.“Not bad for someone they once called a nobody,” she said, her lips curving into a half-smile as she placed a file on his desk.Ale

The drive north was quiet, tense, and wrapped in darkness.Highway lights cut across the windshield like flashes of memory, his father’s voice, the betrayal, the sudden inheritance. Everything that led him to this moment.Claire drove while Alex sat in the passenger seat, laptop open, eyes scanning the encrypted map coordinates again. “We’re close,” he murmured. “It should be right past the ridge.”“Stanton Research Facility,” Claire said softly. “Your father’s old playground.”Alex glanced out the window. The city lights had long vanished behind them, replaced by dense woods and endless black. The rain started again, thin and cold, whispering against the glass.They turned onto a narrow dirt road. The car jolted over broken asphalt until a faded sign came into view, half-buried in weeds:STAN— RESEARCH FACILITY. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.The rest of the letters had been burned away.Alex stepped out first, the wind biting at his face. “We’re here.”Claire joined him, flashlight in h

The drive from Boston to California felt endless.Highways blurred past in streaks of gray and gold as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. For the first time in days, Alex and Claire weren’t running, they were chasing.The rain had stopped somewhere around Chicago, but the air still felt heavy, like the calm before another storm. Alex drove in silence, the faint hum of the car engine filling the void. Claire sat beside him, laptop balanced on her knees, the glow of the screen painting her face blue in the dim light.“Any luck?” he asked, eyes fixed on the road.“Maybe,” she muttered. “Zephyr’s message wasn’t just a direction, it was an encrypted coordinate. I’ve been tracing it through old Stanton databases.”Alex shot her a glance. “And?”She hesitated. “The Stanford Archives your father used weren’t just academic. He built a private server beneath the engineering lab — off-record, unregistered. No one’s supposed to know it exists.”Alex frowned. “So how did Zephyr know?”Claire lean

The border checkpoint loomed ahead, a maze of booths, barriers, flashing signs, and morning traffic creeping through like ants on a frozen spine of highway. The air shimmered with cold, and exhaust curled upward into pale streaks of mist.Claire shoved her foot harder onto the gas. The sedan roared, trembling under the pressure.Behind them, Dominic’s three black SUVs thundered in pursuit, engines snarling like beasts. Bullets punched holes in the asphalt as they closed in.“Alex, window!” Claire shouted.Alex rolled it halfway down. The wind blasted him in the face, freezing his skin instantly. He leaned out and held tight to the frame as the SUVs drew closer.“Left side!” Claire called.Alex steadied himself, then extended the small EMP-pulse device Claire had tossed him moments earlier. It was a compact, silver cylinder with a glowing ring around its center.“Press and throw!” Claire barked.Alex pressed the button. The device hummed.“Now!”Alex flung it at the nearest SUV.It hit