"Was that an order, Commander?" Skinny Monkey's tone carried the playful edge of a man who had already decided to follow but enjoyed watching the person giving orders adjust to the fact that obedience here was voluntary."That was a professional request from a man who just got put on his back twice." Hamza's lip twitched despite himself. "Take it before I change my mind and send the big one instead.""The big one would scare them." Skinny Monkey stepped forward. "I'll confuse them. Confusion is worse."The Ridge estate study still smelled like dried blood from the butler's stain on the floor. Nobody had cleaned it. Nobody had been told to.Angelo Ridge stood at the desk with a stack of papers in his hand and the posture of a man who had been building an argument for the last two hours."We need to act, Father." Angelo slapped the papers down. "Finally. We need to finally do something besides sit in this room and wait for the next body to come through the door."Truman Ridge sat behind

Ulysses tried. His right knee folded sideways. He looked up at the thin fighter standing over him with a blade resting casually against his shoulder."Stay down, big man." Skinny Monkey looked at Ulysses the way a cat looks at a mouse it's already caught but hasn't decided whether to eat. "Getting up just means I have to put you down again, and I don't enjoy repeating myself.""Who are you?" Ulysses's teeth were clenched, sweat running down his temples despite the cold air."Nobody you need to remember." Skinny Monkey tapped the flat of his blade against his palm. "Because remembering me means you've survived long enough to tell someone about it. And that depends on whether you stay exactly where you are."Angelo Ridge's face went from shock to calculation in the time it took him to draw one breath."Fifty thousand." Angelo leaned over the wall. "Fifty thousand to whoever drops that skinny freak where he stands. Right now. Cash tonight."Three guards stepped forward from the inner cou

Angelo didn't register what happened between standing and not standing. The pain arrived a full second after the impact, like a telegram delivered to the wrong floor that finally found the right address. Both knees. Precise. Structural.Angelo Ridge screamed.Skinny Monkey was already walking toward the tree line before the scream reached its peak. Hamza pulled the unit into the forest without a word. Eight shadows dissolving into the darkness like they had never been there.The Ridge estate study smelled like blood and failure. Angelo lay on the leather couch with both legs splinted and his face the color of spoiled milk.Truman Ridge sat behind his desk with the satellite phone pressed to his ear."They broke his legs." Truman's voice was hollow. "Eight men walked up to my gate, destroyed my best fighter, put three guards on the ground, and broke my son's legs. And then they told me to apologize."The line was silent for three seconds."What did they want?" The woman's voice was con

Marcus didn't answer. He raised the scope back to his eye and watched the engagement below with the patience of a man watching a pot he already knows is about to boil.Six minutes passed. The woman's operatives had advanced to within eighty meters of the villa's south wall. Skyfire's defensive fire was thinning. Two positions on the ground floor had gone silent.Eight minutes.Nine minutes.At the eleven minute mark, Lucas noticed it first."Something changed." Lucas leaned forward, his good hand gripping the rock. "Skyfire's defensive positions on the east wing. They were collapsing two minutes ago. Now they're holding.""Keep watching." Marcus chewed on a blade of grass."They're not just holding." Lucas stood up. His scope tracked the east side of the villa where the tree line met the garden wall. "They're pushing. Skyfire didn't have anyone in that sector twelve minutes ago. Where did those fighters come from?"The woman's operatives encountered the new resistance the way a river

"Skinny Monkey's unit has been staged inside the villa's defensive perimeter for the past hour." Marcus tossed the apple core into the darkness. "On home ground. With knowledge of every approach, every firing lane, and every blind spot Skyfire doesn't know they have. The woman's team is walking into a province they've studied on a map. Skinny Monkey's people have been breathing this dirt for days."The south approach road came alive. Three vehicles. No headlights. The figures that emerged moved with the tight discipline of people who expected resistance and had trained to move through it."There they are." Marcus pulled out his scope. "Count them.""Sixteen." Lucas tracked the formation. "Two fire teams of six. Four support in the rear. Weapons are suppressed. They're carrying breaching equipment."The first shots split the night air. Muzzle flashes from the tree line answered by return fire from the villa's upper windows. The Saint Heir's lockdown had given Skyfire the defensive adva