All Chapters of The Exile's reckoning : Chapter 61
- Chapter 70
112 chapters
Sanctuary
The farmhouse appeared out of the dark like a mirage.It sat at the end of a long gravel road, surrounded by empty fields and woods, no neighbors for miles. The kind of place that didn't exist on maps, where someone could disappear and no one would think to look.Lila directed Nadia down the driveway. Lights were already on inside—someone had been expecting them.The van barely stopped before the front door opened. A woman in her sixties stepped out, gray hair pulled back in a tight bun, wire-rimmed glasses catching the porch light. She took one look at the blood-soaked passengers tumbling out of the van and nodded once."Inside. Now."No questions. No hesitation.Doctor Hayes had been a trauma surgeon before she'd gone off-grid five years ago. Lila's mother had told her about this place once, in one of the last coherent conversations they'd had before the OxyElite finally killed her. A sanctuary for people who couldn't go to regular hospitals. People running from men like Marcus Blac
Fractures
Julie sat on the porch steps, staring at nothing.The fields stretched out before her—empty and brown and endless under the gray winter sky. She'd been sitting there for hours, her casted arm resting in her lap, her good hand curled into a fist. Not moving. Not speaking. Just staring.Inside, the others were resting. Reece was still unconscious but stable. Helen was fading slowly in her bed. Lila and Nadia were catching what little sleep they could.Kai stood in the doorway, watching his sister. Gathering courage.Finally, he stepped outside. The porch boards creaked under his weight. Julie didn't turn."Hey," Kai said quietly, sitting down beside her. "You doing okay?""Fine."The word was flat. Final. A wall going up between them."Julie—""I said I'm fine."Kai was quiet for a moment. Then, carefully: "Talk to me. Please. I know what happened in that tower was—""You don't know anything."Julie finally turned to look at him, and her eyes were hard. Angry. Not the eyes of the little
Lila's Guilt
Three in the morning.The farmhouse was silent except for the soft beeping of monitors from Reece's room and the occasional creak of old wood settling. Everyone was asleep—or trying to be.Lila stood in the hallway outside Reece's door, watching him through the small window. He was still unconscious, his face pale against the white pillows, bandages wrapped around his head. The monitors tracked his vitals in steady, reassuring rhythms. Alive. Barely, but alive.She'd been standing there for an hour, unable to look away. Unable to sleep."Can't rest either?"Lila jumped, spinning around. Kai stood at the end of the hallway, shadows under his eyes, his ribs still wrapped in bandages beneath his shirt."I didn't hear you," she said quietly."Old habit." He walked closer, moving carefully—everything still hurt. "What are you doing out here?"Lila looked back through the window at Reece. "Making sure he's still breathing.""Doctor Hayes said he's stable.""I know."Kai stood beside her, bo
Viktor's Hunt
The medical facility was sterile and private, the kind of place that catered to people who couldn't go to regular hospitals. People like Viktor Kane.He sat shirtless on the examination table while a doctor worked on his shoulder in silence. The wound was clean—through and through, missing the bone—but it hurt like hell. The leg wound was worse, though. Lila's bullet had clipped his femoral artery. He'd nearly bled out in the tower before Marcus's private medics had extracted him.Three times. He'd been shot three times in the past forty-eight hours and was still standing.Some men couldn't be killed. Viktor had stopped questioning why years ago.The doctor finished bandaging the shoulder and moved to check the leg. Viktor barely felt it. His mind was elsewhere, running through scenarios, calculating probabilities. Where would Cross go? Who would help him? How long did they have before everything collapsed?His encrypted phone buzzed on the table. One name on the screen: BLACKWELL.Vi
Helen's Last gift
Doctor Hayes came out of Helen's room at sunset, her face grim."She's asking for all of you," she said quietly. "And you should come now."The words hung in the air, heavy with finality. Hours, maybe less. They all knew what that meant.Kai, Lila, Julie, and Nadia filed into the small bedroom. Helen lay propped against pillows, her skin gray and waxy, her breathing labored. The monitors beside her bed beeped irregularly. She looked smaller than she had even hours ago, as if death was already pulling her away piece by piece."Reece?" Helen's voice was barely above a whisper."Still unconscious," Kai said. "Stable, but he can't—""I know." Helen managed something like a smile. "Probably better. He'd try to talk me out of what I'm about to ask."She gestured weakly for them to come closer. They gathered around the bed—a strange congregation of the broken and the desperate."I'm dying tonight," Helen said simply. "Don't waste time arguing or pretending otherwise. I can feel it. So can yo
Execution
The basement was cold and dark, lit only by a single bare bulb swinging from the ceiling.Derek Sterling sat zip-tied to a metal chair in the center of the concrete floor, his face swollen from crying, his designer clothes torn and stained. When he heard footsteps on the stairs, his head jerked up, eyes wide with terror.Nadia descended first, her face blank, her pistol already drawn. Kai followed, his expression unreadable."Please," Derek sobbed immediately. "Please, I didn't—I'm sorry—I'll do anything, just don't—"Nadia raised the weapon, aiming it at his head with mechanical precision. No hesitation. No emotion. Just cold efficiency."Wait."Kai's voice cut through the basement. Nadia paused, the gun still leveled at Derek's skull."He might have intel," Kai said quietly.Derek's words tumbled out in a desperate rush. "YES! Yes, I know everything! I'll testify! Against Marcus, against the Consortium, whoever you want! I'll tell you everything, just please don't kill me!"Nadia gl
Protocol Final
They dragged Derek back upstairs and threw him into a chair in the farmhouse's main room.His hands were still zip-tied, his face pale and slick with sweat. He looked at Helen's closed bedroom door, then at the team surrounding him, and seemed to understand that his window for survival was closing fast."Talk," Kai said. "Protocol Final. Everything."Derek swallowed hard. "It's the Consortium's contingency plan. If exposure becomes imminent—if someone's about to go public with names, evidence, anything that could bring them down—they activate Protocol Final.""Which is what, exactly?" Nadia asked, arms crossed."Simultaneous elimination of all witnesses. Everyone who knows their names, their operations, their involvement. Kill them all within forty-eight hours. Burn all physical evidence. Frame any survivors as terrorists or criminals. Rewrite the narrative completely."The room went cold."How many teams?" Kai's voice was flat."Twelve cities. New York, LA, DC, London, Moscow, Hong K
The Leak
Lila's fingers flew across the keyboard, the words pouring out with the clarity that came from knowing exactly what needed to be said.THE CONSORTIUM: HOW AMERICA'S ELITE PROFIT FROM SUFFERINGBy Lila CrossFor thirty years, twelve of the world's most powerful individuals have orchestrated a shadow government that profits from human misery. They are senators and CEOs, generals and judges, oligarchs and bankers. They call themselves the Consortium. And this is what they've done.She wrote methodically, listing every name Helen had documented. Senator Margaret Vance, who'd blocked opioid legislation while her portfolio soared from pharmaceutical investments. Defense contractor James Ruhr, who'd engineered conflicts to sell weapons to both sides. Judge Harold Chen, who'd dismissed cases against Consortium members while taking seven-figure bribes.Every name. Every crime. Thirty years of corruption laid bare.She attached Helen's files—bank records, wire transfers, intercepted communicati
The siege
Dawn came with fire.The explosion blew out the first-floor windows, glass and wood erupting inward in a wave of heat and smoke. Kai was on his feet before the sound finished echoing, weapon already in hand, his body moving on instinct honed by years of violence."CONTACT!" Nadia's voice from upstairs. "Multiple hostiles! Military grade!"Gunfire erupted—automatic weapons, disciplined three-round bursts, the kind of shooting that came from professional operators who knew exactly what they were doing.Doctor Hayes appeared in the hallway, running toward her patients' rooms. A burst of gunfire caught her in the chest. She went down hard, blood spreading across her scrubs, her eyes wide with shock and pain."No!" Lila started toward her, but Kai grabbed her arm, pulled her back."She's gone. We need to move. Now."Reece was still unconscious in his recovery room, hooked to monitors that were now screaming alarms. Kai ran to him, ripping out IVs and disconnecting equipment. He grabbed Ree
The Death of Viktor Kane
Three in the morning. The world reduced to darkness and the sound of shallow breathing.The alarm shattered the silence—a sharp electronic wail that sent everyone scrambling. Someone had breached the perimeter.Kai was up and moving before his eyes fully opened, weapon in hand, muscle memory taking over. Nadia appeared in the hallway half a second later, already armed."How many?" Kai whispered.Nadia checked the security monitor. "Eight, maybe more. Professional movement, silenced weapons."The first window shattered inward with barely a sound—suppressed gunfire, night vision, coordinated breach. These weren't the same operators from dawn. This was a different team. Smaller. More lethal.And Kai realized with cold certainty who they'd come for.Viktor.The firefight erupted fast and brutal. Kai and Nadia returned fire from the second-floor landing, using the stairwell for cover. Julie appeared with her pistol, firing one-handed, her casted arm pressed against her body. She dropped an