Marcus Blackwell lay dead on the warehouse floor, covered by a sheet that was already soaking through with blood. The monitors had gone silent after Torres turned them off, but the absence of sound was somehow louder than any alarm.Lila knelt beside her father's body, her hands pressed against the sheet, shoulders shaking with sobs that wouldn't stop. She'd spent years hating this man—the monster who'd killed her mother, who'd built empires on suffering, who'd represented everything corrupt about power. And now he was gone, and she felt like a part of herself had been torn away."I hated you," she whispered to the covered corpse. "I hated you so much. And you still died for me. Why? Why did you have to die for me?"The warehouse was silent except for her crying and the distant sound of sirens somewhere in the city. Everyone else stood in a loose circle around Marcus's body, processing what had just happened, trying to understand what came next.Kai watched Lila grieve, his face unrea

The abandoned subway station was freezing, but it was safe. For now.The team gathered around a makeshift table—salvaged plywood across concrete blocks—with a laptop displaying news coverage and target profiles. Kai stood at the head, his surgical wounds still bandaged but his eyes sharp with purpose."We stop running," he said. "Start hunting."Nadia pulled up a file on the laptop. "Senator Richard Vance. Already exposed. Out on ten-million-dollar bail pending trial. If we're picking targets, he's the most accessible.""Where is he?" Julie asked."Maryland estate. Fifty miles from DC." Reeves leaned over the screen, reading FBI surveillance reports she'd accessed through back channels. "He's got a thirty-man private security detail. Former Blackwater. These aren't mall cops—they're professional military contractors."Torres looked skeptical. "How do we get through thirty trained mercenaries?""We don't fight them," Kai said. "We go around them."Lila had been quiet, staring at Vance'

The Chairman's ultimatum hung in the air like poison."Kill your team. Save Lila. Or everyone dies."Kai stood in the destroyed study, weapon in hand, surrounded by laser sights and impossible choices. His finger rested on the trigger. The weight of the gun felt like the weight of the world.Nadia was the first to speak. "Don't even think about it. We die together or not at all.""Kai, listen to me." Lila's voice was steady despite the terror in her eyes. "I'd rather die right here, right now, than watch you become what they want. Don't give them that."Through the comms, Julie's voice came weak and strained, blood loss making her words slow. "Little brother... whatever you choose... I love you... I understand..."The Chairman's silhouette leaned forward on the screen. "Ten seconds became five. Decide. NOW."Kai saw them all. Eleanor's face the night she died, whispering for him to stay human. Marcus taking a bullet to protect Lila. Viktor dying to get them the files. Helen sacrificin

Reeves's FBI contact delivered the news with clinical precision: "Consortium kill-team mobilizing. Sixty operators. Military-grade equipment. Target is Julie Cross. Alive. ETA two hours."The underground hospital's hallway went silent."Julie can't be moved," Dr. Tanaka said, her voice firm. "Post-operative complications. Internal repairs are fragile. Transport her now and the artery ruptures. She bleeds out in minutes.""Then we defend," Kai said simply."I have thirty patients here." Tanaka gestured toward the wards. "Cancer patients. Gunshot victims. People recovering from surgery. People with nowhere else to go.""Evacuate them," Nadia said."To where?" Tanaka's voice rose slightly. "They're fugitives. Illegal immigrants. People who can't access regular hospitals because of warrants or status or debts. This facility exists because they have no safe place. I'm not abandoning them."Kai looked at her. Saw the determination. The refusal to compromise. "Then we hold the line here."Th

The yellow gas crept through the facility like a living thing, hugging the ceiling, spreading through corridors, seeping under doors.Patients were coughing, eyes streaming tears, skin burning where the chlorine touched. The early stages of exposure. Five minutes until it became lethal."Evacuate everyone who can move," Kai ordered, his own eyes burning.Dr. Tanaka was helping patients toward the exits, her voice hoarse. "That's twelve patients. Sixteen can't be moved without killing them. Including Julie. Moving her would tear the artery repair. She'd bleed out in seconds."The Chairman's voice through the radio, calm and certain: "Sixty seconds, Kai. Julie for everyone else. Final offer."Kai looked at his sister, unconscious and helpless. Then at the patients choking on poison gas. An impossible choice dressed up as mercy."There has to be another way," Kai said."There isn't." Nadia was coughing too, struggling to breathe. "We're trapped. No gas masks. No sealed rooms. We all die