The border of Italy wasn't a gate; it was a ghost-light blur as the SUV hammered through the checkpoint barriers at seventy miles per hour. Matteo’s blood, thin and acidic with exhaustion, felt like it was boiling. Behind them, Basel was a fading smear of neon; ahead, the mountain roads were a jagged, dark tooth-line against the horizon."They've killed the satellite relay," Isabella said, her knuckles bone-white as she whipped the car around a blind hairpin turn. "The dashboard isn't pulling new coordinates. We're running on dead-reckoning."Matteo gripped the center console, his head throbbing with a dull, sickening thrum. "That wasn't just a signal blackout. They jammed the local bandwidth. Volkov knows exactly where the border gaps are. He doesn't need to chase us—he just needs to park the bus in the middle of our only route home."He checked the flash drive in his palm, a tiny piece of plastic that had suddenly become the heaviest object in the world. This was the 'Chimera' index