The room went still in a way that felt almost physical.The doctor’s words had not lingered as sound alone—they had settled into the space like weight, pressing down on everyone at once. The sealed evidence pouch remained in his hand, but no one was looking at it anymore.Becky turned slowly toward Jared, her expression tightening with disbelief that she couldn’t quite suppress. “A match…?”The detective didn’t answer immediately. His eyes stayed on Jared, assessing him now with a sharper, more clinical focus.“The preliminary comparison returned a partial match,” he said carefully. “It is not yet conclusive forensic confirmation, but it is strong enough to justify escalation.”Director Hill exhaled faintly, almost satisfied despite himself. “Strong enough,” he repeated under his breath.Jared ignored him completely.His gaze remained fixed on the doctor. “How partial?”The doctor hesitated for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “The sample is degraded. Environmental exposure, li

The operations center had grown quieter over the last twenty minutes, but the silence carried no relief with it. Every screen across the room still displayed fragments of the investigation—security footage, telemetry records, campus maps, timestamps—and none of it looked better the longer they stared at it.If anything, it looked worse.Rain hammered steadily against the glass walls surrounding the executive floor while Ethan continued working through the system logs with sharp, controlled focus. His fingers moved rapidly across the holographic interface as lines of encrypted activity scrolled endlessly before him.“Pause that frame again,” Jared ordered suddenly.One of the analysts immediately obeyed.The footage from the university corridor froze once more, capturing the partial side profile of the figure trailing Brad toward the south parking structure.Becky hated looking at it.The resemblance unsettled her every single time.“It’s deliberate,” Jared muttered coldly as he paced

The holding cell smelled like rust, disinfectant, and exhaustion.Jared sat alone on the narrow steel bench with his elbows resting against his knees, staring silently at the concrete floor beneath him while distant footsteps echoed through the detention corridor outside. The white overhead light buzzed faintly above his head, harsh enough to make the entire room feel colder than it already was.Hours had passed since the arrest. At least, he thought they had. Time felt strange inside places like this.His suit jacket had already been taken. The sleeves of his black dress shirt remained rolled halfway up his forearms, exposing faint bruising near his wrist from where one of the officers had grabbed him earlier downstairs at Diamond Global.Not that Jared had resisted. That was the part still bothering him most.The fact that he had walked into the police car knowing somebody was carefully dismantling his life piece by piece while he stood there doing absolutely nothing to stop it.Out

By the time Jared and Becky arrived back at Diamond Global’s executive tower, the city had fallen into the uneasy silence that only existed after midnight. The rainstorm earlier had washed most of the traffic from the streets below, leaving the financial district glowing cold and empty beneath scattered reflections of neon and glass.The moment the private elevator doors opened onto the executive security floor, Jared immediately sensed the tension waiting for them.Nobody spoke.Analysts moved quickly between holographic displays while Diamond Security personnel filled the operations center with controlled urgency. Multiple surveillance feeds flickered across the massive central screen, accompanied by location maps, phone records, and blinking alert markers spread across West Angeles.Ethan stood near the center console issuing rapid instructions to two agents before finally noticing Jared stepping into the room.His expression hardened instantly.“You’re back,” Ethan said grimly.Ja

The livestream lasted only nineteen seconds before cutting out again.But nineteen seconds was enough to change the entire atmosphere inside Diamond Global’s operations center.Brad Trodman’s bruised face remained frozen across the central display long after the feed disappeared, his swollen eyes staring weakly into the camera while dried blood stained the side of his jaw. The room had gone completely silent except for the constant clicking of keyboards and the low hum of the servers beneath the executive floor.Becky stood near Jared now, one arm wrapped tightly around herself as if trying to physically contain her fear. She had not moved since the livestream ended.“He looked conscious,” she whispered shakily.“He was,” Ethan replied without looking away from his screens. “Barely.”Jared’s expression remained cold as he stared at the frozen image of Brad. His mind was already moving ahead of the panic, piecing together Damien’s strategy carefully.The livestream was deliberate.Ever