“Sir, I can see the city right below us. We will be landing any moment now.” Karlus cleared his throat slowly. A low sound came from somewhere deep in his chest before it found its way out. He looked around at the men seated in the cabin. All of them were armed. All of them were prepared. All of them watched him with the kind of attention that came from people who had been trained to receive an order and execute it without the space of a breath in between. “We all know the mission. We go in, we do what we came here to do and we pull out. We stay low and we stay focused.” He paused and let his eyes move slowly across every face in the cabin. “Some of us may come face to face with things from years ago in that city. Things we thought were behind us.” His head turned slowly toward Cole and the look he gave him lasted just long enough to mean something. Then he turned back to the rest of the room. “We do not let any of that pull us off course. We have one goal and we work toward it.

“Click. Click. Click.” The sound of keyboards filled the office from every direction. Every desk had a glowing screen, and every screen had someone staring into it. The kind of office that did not really stop running even when the people inside it wanted to. Kyler’s screen was on but he was not looking at it. His chair rolled slowly left then right then left again as his eyes stayed fixed on the upper floor where Karlus’s office sat behind its closed door. He had been staring at that spot for a while now. Long enough that the pen between his fingers had found its way to his mouth and the bottom of it was almost white from biting. “Hey. Are you okay? You have been staring up there for way too long.” The voice was light and clean and composed enough that it pulled his attention without trying too hard. He turned toward it and wiped his face with one hand and pushed a smile out. “Yeah, I am fine. Just dealing with a really difficult project. It is almost taking my head off.” He l

“Think about how much you could do with all of this. All I need is access to that yard. And you know what the best part is?” Scorpion leaned in close to the guard’s ear and let his voice drop to almost nothing. The kind of whisper that made the words feel like they were meant only for the person receiving them. “Nobody will ever know you were behind it.” The guard’s eyes moved to the gold sitting in Scorpion’s palm. The rings. The watch. The kind of things that a man on a prison guard’s salary looked at and did the mathematics on immediately. How long it would take to earn that legitimately. How many shifts. How many years. The answer wasn't comfortable. Scorpion watched the guard’s face and read every calculation happening behind his eyes. The small movement at the corner of his mouth that the man was trying to keep invisible. He had him. He knew it before the guard had even fully decided. “Imagine everything you could get with this. Things your salary has never once come close

Scorpion dragged Nathan backward with the knife pressed flat against his throat. The look in his eyes was not a performance. It was not intimidation. It was the look of a man who had already made his decision and was just waiting for the right second to carry it out. Nelson stood completely still. Every instinct in him was firing at once but his feet would not move because he knew with complete certainty that any movement he made right now would be the last thing Nathan ever saw. His mind was already working. If he could move fast enough. Something thrown at Scorpion’s eyes. Dust from the ground. Anything to break his concentration for just half a second. “Whatever you are thinking right now forget it.” Scorpion’s voice came out ragged and certain. “You move one inch and I will open your brother up right here and you will spend the rest of your life knowing you caused it.” Nelson’s foot that had already begun to shift stopped completely. Nathan was not struggling. He was not f

“That is exactly the approach we need. Open the case under Abigail’s name. The president’s daughter. The moment that name surfaces publicly again the people who have been sitting on this for years will be forced to respond. Her family. The people in authority who were connected to her. All of them will want to know why this case is moving again. And that is when we bring everything out into the open and show the city the truth they were never allowed to see.” James looked at her with genuine admiration. “You have always thought three steps ahead of everyone else in the room. That is what makes you exceptional. It really is good to be working alongside you again.” Claire’s face flushed slightly at that. She pressed her lips together trying to contain the smile but it found its way out anyway. “Thank you, James. That genuinely means something.” She straightened in her chair and looked between them both. “But before we go any further I need one thing from both of you.” She paused a