The Level B-4 Morgue was as quiet as the ocean floor.The two staff members in white who had brought Elias in were gone. They had switched off the main lights, leaving only the emergency red lights blinking softly. The room was now filled solely with the low hum of the massive refrigeration units lining the walls.On the stainless-steel autopsy table in the center of the room, the zipper of the black body bag was cracked slightly open.Elias lay motionless inside.The hypothermic coma he had forced upon himself was gradually fading as the room's temperature proved slightly warmer than the cargo truck's interior. His red eyes stared up at the white tiled ceiling.His breathing was shallow.The oxygen remaining in his miniature tank would last less than thirty minutes.Elias's body was completely paralyzed from the neck down. He could not even lift a hand to pull open the zipper. His right thigh throbbed with pain as blood slowly seeped through his pants from the tracking-chip injection

Crack... crack...The sound of bones being forced to move beyond their natural limits echoed through the deserted corridors of Level B-4.The three Black Hound mercenary corpses under Elias's control stood motionless in pools of their comrades' blood. Their faces were blank. Their eyes were milky white. Their breathing had long since ceased.Elias did not sever the connection.Guided by silent commands from the God of Death's mind, the first and second corpses turned. They dragged the bodies of the men they had just slaughtered into the long hallway before pulling the morgue's double doors shut from the outside.CLANK!Using the butt of its rifle, the first corpse smashed the door's electronic control panel. The magnetic lock short-circuited and melted. The morgue was now completely sealed.Sloane and Elias's physical body were safe from interference by underground patrols.Only the third corpse remained.Elias's primary host.The corpse, a heavily built mercenary whose chest had been

Third Floor, Vancroft Tower. Security Server Room.The graying crew-cut man, Vancroft's Head of Security, strolled casually with a tactical shotgun resting on his shoulder. Moments ago, he had blown apart half of Elias's host corpse's head. The body now lay stiff before the main console, staining the pristine carpet with blood and brain matter.The man snorted contemptuously and pulled out his radio."The necrotic target on the third floor has been neutralized. The Ghost tried to hack us from underground, just like Mr. Silas predicted. Sweep B-4 immediately. Make sure his physical shell is burned to ashes."However, the Head of Security forgot one thing.He had just killed the corpse that served as Elias's signal relay, but he had forgotten that within a hundred-meter radius, Elias had unlimited access to anyone who had already died.And just minutes earlier, on B-4, Sloane and Elias had killed five mercenaries outside the Morgue.Inside the B-4 Morgue, Elias did not send his signal b

The Golden Jubilee celebration in the hundredth-floor ballroom had reached its peak. The clinking of crystal glasses, the refined laughter of politicians, and the melodies of a live orchestra filled the night air. Hundreds of VIP guests remained blissfully unaware that this marble hall was being transformed into an open-air execution ground Mel Elevator entrance at the end of the ballroom corridor.“And tonight, as a celebratory gift, I shall present a special performance for all of you.”Inside the executive elevator racing upward.Kael Thorne leaned against the mirrored wall. He had changed into a Vancroft catering attendant's uniform he found in a locker room on the tenth floor. His face was once again concealed behind thick glasses and a fake mustache. On his back rested a small backpack containing C4 explosives and the uplink flash drive.Ding.The digital display above the elevator doors flashed 100.“This is it, El,” Kael whispered into the earpiece. “I'm walking into the lion'

The ringing clang of a Damascus steel sword striking the wooden stage floor echoed through every corner of the hundredth-floor Ballroom.Hundreds of elite guests fell silent in confusion.Silas Vancroft stood frozen at the edge of the stage, his ice-cold eyes fixed on the Executioner, who had lowered both arms stiffly to his sides."What are you doing?!" Silas barked, fury piercing through his patriarchal composure. "Kill that detective now!"But the Executioner did not obey his master.The man in the black cloth mask slowly turned his body. The movement was deeply unnatural. Not fluid like a normal human being, but jerky and broken, like a wooden mannequin forced to move without lubricated joints. The Executioner stopped directly in front of Silas.CRACK!The Executioner's neck bones snapped with a horrifying sound as he twisted his head one hundred eighty degrees backward, staring straight at Kael Thorne while his body remained facing Silas.The sound of neck muscles tearing came fr