"You need to see this."One week later, Jayce stood in the rebuilt Walker Global Technologies temporary headquarters—a rented office building while they designed the new permanent structure. Leonard had just burst into his office holding a laptop."See what?""Another message. From The Collector. But this one's different. Personal." Leonard set the laptop on Jayce's desk and played the video.The same shadowy figure appeared. But this time, they weren't alone. Standing beside them, bound and gagged, was someone Jayce recognized.Master Chen."NO!" Jayce grabbed the laptop. "How did they get to him? He was in FBI protection!""Just watch," Leonard said grimly.The shadowy figure spoke, their distorted voice echoing."Jayce Walker. You refused our offer. You chose to stand against us. That was a mistake. To prove we're serious, to prove that no one is safe from The Collector, we've taken something precious from you."The figure grabbed Master Chen's face, forcing him to look at the came

"Transformation sites are located on six continents. We have five hours and forty minutes to stop all of them."April spread a digital map across the table in their makeshift command center. Jayce, Daniel, Leonard, Agent Santos, and Master Chen all studied the locations."That's impossible," Leonard said. "We can't reach all of them in time.""Then we don't reach them. We shut them down remotely." Daniel was already typing on a laptop. "If these sites are running my mother's—" he stopped, correcting himself, "—Evelyn's modifications to the transformation process, they'll all be networked. Connected to a central server.""Can you hack it?""Already am. But there's a problem. The server has biometric security. It needs Evelyn's DNA, voice print, and retinal scan to authorize a shutdown.""We have her in custody. Force her to do it.""She's in no condition. The kill switch has her in too much pain. She can barely speak." April checked her tablet. "Master Chen's injection is working fast.

"She's been gone for three days. Three days and not a single trace."Leonard threw another file onto Jayce's desk. Each one represented a dead end. A false lead. A ghost trail that went nowhere."She's good," Daniel said from his position by the window. "Better than Evelyn. More careful.""Or she has help. People we don't know about yet." Jayce rubbed his tired eyes. He hadn't slept properly since the press conference. Since learning about Rayna. "Master Chen, you knew Evelyn for decades. Did she ever mention another daughter?""Never. But Evelyn was a master of compartmentalization. She probably kept Rayna separate from everything. A secret weapon she never revealed until necessary." The old master poured tea with steady hands. "The question is, who else knew about her?""I might have something," April burst into the office holding her tablet. "I've been going through Evelyn's old financial records. Payments to a boarding school in Switzerland. Twenty years of them. To a student name

The gun clicked. Empty.Rayna's face showed shock, then rage. She threw the useless weapon at Jayce and ran for the door.But Daniel stepped out of hiding, blocking her path. He'd been in the lab the whole time, hidden in a storage closet."Looking for this?" Daniel held up the ammunition magazine. "I removed it while you were distracted with Jayce.""How did you—""We've been tracking you since Switzerland. Surveillance drones. Satellite monitoring. Your private plane was tagged with a tracker." Daniel smiled. "You're not the only one who can plan ahead."More people emerged from hiding. April. Santos. Master Chen. A dozen FBI agents.Rayna looked around, trapped. "This is impossible. I had security monitoring everything. I had the building locked down.""You had our old security. We upgraded two days ago. Completely new system. Your people never knew." April stepped forward. "And those guards downstairs? FBI agents in disguise. They let you walk right in.""But... but the cabin. The

"We have a problem."Leonard burst into Jayce's office at three in the morning. Jayce had been reviewing security protocols, running on coffee and determination."What kind of problem?""The kind where someone's been accessing our systems. Copying files. Sending data to an external server." Leonard pulled up logs on his laptop. "I only caught it because I installed new monitoring software after Rayna breached us. This is different. More sophisticated. Someone who knows our security inside and out.""When did it start?""Three days ago. Right after we got Lily's flash drive.""So someone on our team is the leak. Or someone planted surveillance we haven't found yet." Jayce stood. "Who has access to these files?""Everyone in our core team. Me, you, Daniel, April, Master Chen, Ella, Santos. That's it. Nobody else has the clearance.""Get them all here. Now. Don't tell them why. Just say it's urgent."Twenty minutes later, everyone gathered in Jayce's office looking confused and worried.