The engine’s scream echoed off the warehouse walls as the motorcycle shot forward into the closing gap.Austin kept his weight low over the tank, his hands firm on the grips. Behind him, Millie’s arms locked around his ribs like a vise, her face buried into his back. To their right, the nose of the first black SUV lunged forward to block the avenue, but the sports bike sliced through the opening with centimeters to spare, its side mirror missing the SUV's bumper by a hair.Austin leaned hard into the first broad curve of the boulevard, bringing them out of 4th Street and back onto the main artery of Harbor Avenue. Towering glass skyscrapers flickered past, catching the early sunlight. Office workers hustled along the crowded sidewalks with coffee cups in hand while taxis squeezed between city buses. To everyone else, Astera City was experiencing just another ordinary morning, but to Austin, the streets had turned into a tactical grid.His eyes flicked rapidly through his mirrors—left,

The industrial district swallowed sound. The heavy, mechanical roar of the motorcycle bounced between weathered brick warehouses before disappearing into the vast emptiness ahead, where rusted shipping containers stood stacked three high like forgotten monuments. Their faded paint bore the scars of decades of salt air and neglect, while towering overhead cranes loomed against the bright morning sky, casting long, skeletal shadows across the deserted loading bays.Austin eased his grip on the throttle slightly—not because the danger had passed, but because it had gone dead silent. That was always worse. He swept his gaze across the road without moving his head, logging every cracked upper window, every dark alleyway, and every parked freight truck as a potential blind spot.“They’re here,” he murmured, his voice carrying clearly through the helmet communicator.Millie caught the sudden shift in his posture, her chest pressing tighter against his back. “You saw them again?”“For less th

Austin kept the motorcycle moving. He didn’t slow down to celebrate surviving the blockade, nor did he allow himself to believe the danger had passed. The engine hummed beneath them as the industrial zone faded into the background, swallowed by the morning bustle of downtown Astera City.Towering warehouses gave way to sleek office towers, crowded intersections, and long lines of commuter traffic. To the people on the sidewalks, it was just another Thursday morning. To Austin, the quiet felt like the calm before a strike.Behind him, Millie loosened her grip around his ribs, her fingers still trembling beneath her gloves. Her heart hammered against her chest as she glanced over her shoulder—once, then twice. No black SUVs. No flashing emergency lights. Just ordinary sedans and city buses. She finally managed to draw a full breath.Austin, however, never stopped checking his mirrors. His gaze flicked left, right, center, and back to the asphalt ahead every three seconds.“You think we

The VIP lounge of the Big Daddy Club overlooked a floor packed with people moving beneath sweeping beams of laser light. Heavy bass vibrated through the plush leather booth where Jake Smith sat with three business partners. An expensive tumbler of bourbon sat untouched on the polished table before him.The conversation at the table centered on commercial real estate and city zoning, but Jake’s attention kept drifting toward his phone.“You’ve checked that screen four times in ten minutes, Jake,” one of his associates teased, raising a glass. “Leave the work at the office for one night.”Jake offered a faint, polite smile, adjusting the cuffs of his jacket. “Force of habit.”Earlier that week, Austin had mentioned touching base once he wrapped up his business in the industrial district. Jake glanced at the clock: nearly 11:00 PM. He considered sending a quick text, then decided against it. If Austin was with Millie, the last thing he needed was Jake interrupting. He slipped the phone i

The phone slipped slowly from Thomas Miller’s ear, and for several long seconds, he did not move. The room around him remained completely silent, yet Jake’s words continued to echo through his mind with deafening clarity: Austin and Millie were involved in a serious accident. He’s in critical condition.Thomas stared blankly at the dark screen of his phone, half-expecting it to ring again so someone could tell him there had been a mistake. But deep down, he knew there was no mistake. His son was lying in a hospital, fighting for his life.Without another thought, Thomas grabbed his car keys from the table, slipped on his jacket, and locked the house behind him. Moments later, his sedan rolled away from the curb and merged into the late-night traffic.Streetlights swept across the windshield, but Thomas barely noticed the road. His mind drifted back through the mist of years—to a small boy laughing as he sprinted wildly across the backyard grass, and later, to a teenager trying to bala