Thursday, 2:17 AM. Alex woke to his phone vibrating. James Park. Calling at 2 AM was never good. "What's wrong?" "Lucy's missing." Alex was out of bed instantly. "What?" "She went back to her room two hours ago. I just did a perimeter check. Her door was open. Signs of struggle. She's gone." Isabella was awake now. "What happened?" "Lucy's been taken." Alex was already pulling on clothes. "Get everyone. Now." Five minutes later, the team assembled in Alex's suite. James had pulled security footage on his tablet. "Three men. Professionals. They bypassed hotel security, picked her lock, disabled her in under thirty seconds. No alarms. No witnesses." "Volkov," Alex said flatly. "Has to be. This is too clean for random criminals." Jennifer was already typing frantically. "I'm tracking her phone.

Thursday, 2:47 PM. The safe house had transformed into a tactical operations center. Maps covered the walls. Weapons laid out on tables. Everyone moving with purpose. Alex sat in a corner, watching James brief Nina and Klaus on the infiltration plan. "Kitchen delivery arrives at 6:30 PM. You'll go in with the suppliers. Nina, you're a temp worker. Klaus, you're doing maintenance on the walk-in freezer." "And our weapons?" Nina asked. "Broken down, hidden in equipment cases. You'll reassemble once inside." Lucy was on her laptop, coordinating with authorities. "The raids are confirmed for 8 PM. Every major property Volkov owns gets hit simultaneously. Banks, warehouses, restaurants—except Korolev." "Why not Korolev?" Sarah asked. "Because I told them we're handling it." Lucy looked at Alex. "I may have implied you were working with the

Friday, 3:27 AM. The safe house was quiet. Too quiet. Everyone was there. Alive. Relatively unharmed. But no one was celebrating. Isabella sat in the corner. Staring at her hands. The hands that had pulled a trigger. Taken a life. Alex sat beside her. Not touching. Just... present. Lucy was on her laptop. Monitoring news feeds. "The raids were successful. Volkov's entire organization is in custody or scattered. The bank's board has been arrested. The EU is calling it the largest organized crime takedown in a decade." "And us?" James asked. "Officially? We were never here. The authorities are crediting excellent police work and anonymous tips." Lucy looked at Alex. "Unofficially? They know. But they're letting it slide because we did their job for them." "How generous," Alex said flatly. Sarah brought tea.