The van pulled off the highway into an abandoned rest stop, headlights cutting through the pre-dawn darkness. They needed to think. Needed to plan. Needed to decide if they were going to let another innocent person die."Twelve hours," Lila said, staring at her phone. At the photo Marcus had sent—James Chen, her editor, zip-tied to a chair, his face bloodied and terrified. "Twelve hours or James dies.""It's a trap," Kai said flatly. "Marcus wants you to come. Wants us to walk into whatever killbox he's prepared.""Obviously it's a trap," Lila shot back. "But what's the alternative? Let James die? Let Marcus murder an innocent man just to prove he can?""That's exactly what he wants you to think." Nadia was checking weapons, her movements mechanical. "He's counting on your guilt. Your sense of responsibility. It's psychological warfare."Julie sat in the back, cradling her casted arm. "How many more people die because we won't stop running? How many more James Chens are there? How man

Five seconds.Time compressed. The world reduced to a choice measured in heartbeats.Kai grabbed Nadia by her vest and threw her backward through the doorway with everything he had. She hit the stairs hard, rolling, her weapon clattering away.Four seconds.Kai turned toward James Chen, toward the man tied to the chair with terror in his eyes, toward the red light blinking faster now on the device strapped to his chest.Three seconds.No time to run. No time to disarm it. No time to do anything except brace.Two seconds.James's eyes found Kai's. An apology. A plea. A goodbye.One second.The explosion was everything—light and heat and pressure that turned the world into chaos. The C4 strapped to James Chen detonated with enough force to vaporize him instantly, to shred the chair into shrapnel, to blow out the windows and buckle the walls.Kai was lifted off his feet and thrown backward. He hit the window frame, felt it shatter around him, and then he was falling.Two stories. Twenty

The penthouse had been transformed into something clinical and sterile. The furniture pushed aside, the space converted into a makeshift operating room with equipment that looked like it belonged in a major hospital. Surgical lights. Monitors. Anesthesia machines. Everything necessary to save a life.Three people in surgical scrubs worked with focused efficiency—real doctors, Lila realized, not hired thugs playing dress-up. Marcus paid well enough to buy legitimate talent, even for illegal operations.They'd rushed Kai into the surgical suite immediately, cutting away his bloodsoaked clothes and hooking him to monitors that beeped with urgent, irregular rhythms. Internal bleeding. Collapsed lung. Multiple fractures. The kind of injuries that killed people without immediate intervention.Lila watched through the observation window, her hands pressed against the glass. She couldn't enter—sterile field, the head surgeon had explained curtly before disappearing behind the door. She could

Six hours later, the world caught fire.Every major news network cut to breaking coverage simultaneously—a coordination so precise it was almost beautiful. CNN. Fox News. MSNBC. BBC. All showing the same thing: Senator Richard Vance's face beside headlines that would end careers and start investigations.**BREAKING: Senator Vance Implicated in Decades-Long Corruption Scheme****Documents Reveal $50M in Bribes, Murder-for-Hire Operations****OxyElite Cover-Up: Senator Blocked Investigation While Taking Pharmaceutical Money**Marcus stood in his penthouse office, watching four screens simultaneously, his face unreadable. Lila sat across the room, still in the chair beside Kai's recovery bed, watching the same coverage on a tablet.On screen, a CNN anchor shuffled papers with barely controlled urgency: "We're receiving confirmation from multiple sources that FBI agents are currently executing search warrants at Senator Vance's office on Capitol Hill. The Senator has refused comment and h

The elevator ascended in smooth silence, floor numbers ticking upward on the digital display. The Consortium operators stood in professional formation, weapons at low ready, faces calm behind tactical gear.The lead operator glanced at Nadia. "Asset status?"Nadia kept her voice steady, professional. "Secure. Panic room. Blackwell locked it down when the breach started.""Good." The operator checked his tablet, reading orders. "Our mission parameters are clear: eliminate Blackwell, secure the daughter alive. She's valuable to the organization."The words hung in the air like poison.Julie's hand tightened on her concealed weapon, but she kept her face neutral. Reece shifted his weight, trying not to react. Nadia just nodded, as if this was expected information."Understood," Nadia said.The operator continued scrolling through his orders. "The woman—Lila Cross—is Marcus Blackwell's biological daughter. She has access to sensitive materials. The organization needs her alive for interro