CHAPTER 2: THE WEIGHT OF STARSPOV: Ethan Cole "On behalf of the President and this nation, we salute you, General Cole."Twelve senior officials rose from their seats at the same time. Twelve men who commanded armies, who had never bent their knees to anything except duty, stood in a room that smelled of polished wood and classified secrets, with their right hands pressed to their temples.For me.I stood at the head of the table and said nothing for a moment. The holographic projection behind them rotated slowly, a glowing map of every operation I had run in the past six years. Locations I had never spoken aloud. Faces I had buried in classified files. A life I had lived inside the walls of a cover story so complete that even my own wife had believed I was a worthless man rotting in a detention cell.The President stepped forward."Ethan Cole." His voice carried the kind of weight that didn't need volume. "Six years undercover. Seven successful operations. Two national crises occur

CHAPTER 4: PIECESPOV: Ethan Cole "Who said he needs to give you money?"The crowd shifted. The guards shifted. Even Margaret shifted, her eyes moving past my shoulder to find whoever had spoken.Zara walked forward like she had all the time in the world.She had changed nothing about herself since going inside. Same posture, same expression, same unhurried way of moving that she had inherited directly from her father, the particular walk of someone who had never once in their life needed to announce their arrival because the room always figured it out on its own. The two bodyguards who materialized behind her seemed to appear from nowhere, solid and silent and very large.The security guards recognized her first."Boss." The taller one straightened immediately, his professional composure cracking just slightly at the edges. He opened his mouth to say something else and she cut him off with one raised hand, not even looking at him.Her eyes were on Margaret."I'll ask again." Zara's

CHAPTER 6: THE WEIGHT OF SMALL THINGS*POV: Ethan Cole "Give it to me."I looked up from my hand. Zara was standing in front of me, palm out, watching me with an expression I recognized. Not the performative Zara, not the one who kissed cheeks without warning and made hotel security want to retire early. This was the other one. The one underneath all of that.We were upstairs now, in the private dining room she had reserved, all clean lines and low lighting and the kind of quiet that costs money. I had not said much since we came inside. She had not pushed. She had ordered tea I didn't ask for and sat across from me and waited, which was probably the most patience I had ever seen her exercise in one sitting."The pendant," she said. "Give it to me."I looked at my closed fist, then opened it slowly. The four pieces sat in my palm, the cracked jade, the split silver setting, the small clasp that had somehow survived intact like it hadn't gotten the message yet."Zara.""I know someone

CHAPTER 8: SHADOWS ON PAPER*POV: Ethan Cole "You're already somewhere else."I looked up from my phone. Zara had her arms crossed and her head tilted, watching me from across the table with the particular expression she reserved for situations where she was pretending to be more unbothered than she actually was."I'm sitting right here," I said."Your body is sitting right here." She gestured at my phone with her chin. "Whatever just came through on that thing took the rest of you somewhere I'm not allowed to follow." She picked up her bag from the back of her chair and stood, smoothing her jacket with the efficiency of someone who had already made a decision. "Go. I know how this works.""Zara.""Ethan." She said my name the same way I had said hers, flat and final and faintly amused. "I've known you long enough to understand that when the job calls, the job calls. I got my two hours." She paused, then added more quietly, "Almost."I stood.She waved me off before I could say anyth

CHAPTER 10: FOUR CORNERSPOV: Ethan Cole ********"We need to talk."I said it and watched Vivian's face do something complicated in the space of one second. Not fear. Not anger. Something quieter than both, the particular look of someone who has just realized the room they are standing in is bigger than they thought and they do not have a map.Lance smiled.Of course he did."I don't believe we've been introduced." He extended his hand toward me with the ease of a man who had never once been caught off guard in his life. "Lance Whitmore."I looked at the hand.Did not take it."I know who you are," I said.The smile stayed exactly where it was but something behind his eyes adjusted, quick and slight, like a dial being turned one notch. He was good. I would give him that. Six successful cons and a pattern clean enough that it had taken a Presidential level clearance to trace it properly. The man knew how to stand still under pressure.But I had stood still under worse.Vivian looked