The red camera indicator light on the camera shifted from a text to blue. Inside the quiet study of his estate in Arcadia City, The Godfather sat forward in his leather armchair. The silent video stream on his wall screen suddenly filled the room with clear audio. The Godfather raised one hand, resting his chin on his knuckles, his dark eyes fixed entirely on Commander Vane.Down in the cold chamber of Sector 4, Chris took two steps back, folding his arms over his chest. "The channel is live, Commander. Speak directly to the Chairman."Vane swallowed hard, his throat dry. He stepped out from behind his pile of discarded weapons and walked until he stood directly beneath the main high-definition camera mount. He looked straight into the glass lens."My name is Commander Vane," he began, his voice surprisingly steady despite the sweat running down his face. "I am the lead officer of the Ebon Hand shadow detail."Across the vault, Gideon stood on the upper walkway, keeping his rifle tra

The port authority building sat dark and empty as the cold morning air swept across Onyx Harbor.All across the docklands, Gideon’s tactical units moved quickly from pier to pier, securing every building, locking down automated cranes, and sealing the main entry gates. Sector 1 through Sector 8 were completely silent, fully brought under Greene Global's control without a single public gunfight.Inside his mobile command unit parked near Sector 4, Chris stood in front of a wide digital map showing the entire harbor layout. Green checkmarks covered almost every berth on the screen. Gideon stepped inside the command vehicle, pulling off his gloves. His face was tense."Boss, we have a problem at the northern edge," Gideon reported, pointing his finger at the upper right corner of the digital map. "Dock 9 is dark."Chris looked at the screen closer now. Dock 9 showed a flickering yellow error box instead of a solid green mark. "Did Vance's men fall back there?""No," Gideon replied, shaki

The door to the server room swung open with a dull thud. Inside, rows of black server racks lined both sides of the room, their small blue lights blinking rapidly in the darkness.Chris stepped inside. Gideon followed right behind him, keeping his rifle pointed down the central aisle before lowering the barrel slightly."This entire room is running on isolated power," Gideon noted, looking up at the thick cables running along the ceiling. "They weren't routing any data through the city's network.""They couldn't afford to," Chris said. He walked directly toward the main control desk sitting at the back of the room. "Connecting to a local tower would have given BODAS a breadcrumb trail straight to their server location." In the center of the desk sat a wide, flat terminal console. The screen was dark, showing only a small, blinking yellow cursor in the top corner. Below the screen was a mechanical keyhole alongside a digital scanner pad.Chris reached into his pocket and pulled out t

Three thousand miles away, inside a glass skyscraper overlooking Lake Geneva, the atmosphere inside Director Blackwell’s executive office felt suffocating. The room was filled with the noise of shouting. Floor-to-ceiling digital screens mounted along the walls displayed red market graphs dropping straight down. On the conference table, five different desk phones were ringing at the same time, their red lights flashing continuously.Director Blackwell stood behind his desk, his expensive silk tie pulled loose at his collar. Sweat soaked through the front of his dress shirt. He grabbed a crystal glass filled with scotch and threw it across the room. It shattered against the wall, leaving a dark wet stain on the white paneling."Silence those phones!" Blackwell roared, pointing a shaking finger at his assistants. "Shut them off!"A young aide in a dark suit stepped forward, holding a tablet with trembling hands. "Sir, we can't ignore them! That's the chairman of the Zurich Banking Group

At the top-floor office in Geneva, the room was completely quiet except for the heavy, panicked breathing of Director Blackwell. On his laptop screen, every single file folder had been replaced by a blank black box. The stolen blueprints, the research notes, and the test results were gone. Millions of gigabytes of data had been completely wiped clean, as if they had never existed at all."It's gone," the chief engineer whispered, staring at his screen with wide, empty eyes. "Everything is gone. The server drives are totally empty."Blackwell stood motionless beside the table. His chest heaved up and down. His expensive suit was wrinkled, his hair was a mess, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. He had no money, no stock value, no supply partners, and now, no technology.He had lost everything in less than two hours.A dark, crazy look filled Blackwell’s eyes. He pushed his engineer violently out of the way. The engineer fell off his chair, hitting the floor with a loud thud."If