Caspian turned his back and walked away.He didn't look at Orion again. He didn't look at Kevin. He walked up the steps with his jaw set and his hand still aching from the grip he had held, and pushed the glass doors open with his shoulder."Sir!" Atlas called after him.Caspian stopped at the top step without turning around."Wait outside," he said."Sir, I...""Outside, Atlas. With the cars. Don't move."It was not loud. He didn't need it to be. Atlas's mouth closed and his shoulders dropped, and he nodded slowly, like a man who had just been handed a sentence he knew he had earned. He backed away toward the cars where the men stood waiting, and he didn't say another word.Cordelia and Nancy followed Caspian inside.The officers at the counter kept their eyes carefully on their papers. Nancy walked to the counter first, set her briefcase down and gave her name in a clear, flat voice."Nancy Rose, for Miss Graycie Reid. I would like to speak to Detective Marlow, please. And whoever is

The next morning, Caspian walked into Titan Hospital through the front doors.The glass doors slid open ahead of him with a quiet hiss, and the whole lobby seemed to straighten at once.Receptionists stood up behind the counter. A cleaner holding a mop froze mid-stroke. Two nurses at the elevators stopped talking and lowered their eyes. Somewhere to his left, a security guard in a pressed grey uniform snapped his heels together so loudly that it echoed.Caspian looked at the guard.The man stared at a point somewhere above his head and swallowed hard."Good morning, sir," he said."Good morning."That was all. Caspian walked on, from the way they were acting it was clear to Caspian that they had received news of Atlas transfer so they were now trying to look as competent as possible.His arm was still in its cast and his ribs still ached with every second step, but he walked with his back straight. Jason Wills kept pace on his left, half a step behind, a tablet tucked under his arm. He

The sun was sinking behind the hills when the convoy turned off the highway.Three black cars rolled in a slow line along a narrow road, with bare fields on one side and a ridge of red rock on the other. Caspian sat in the middle car with Jason beside him and a tablet glowing on Jason's knee. The men followed in the third car, silent and watchful. Nobody had spoken since they left the hospital.Mario had gone off with a folder under his arm like a man who had been handed a bomb. The share purchase needed time.But there was one thing that didn't."How far?" Caspian asked."Four minutes, sir," Jason said. "The gate is just ahead."The road bent, and the estate came into view.It sat on a low hill with a wall around it, tall and pale, with iron spikes along the top. Behind the wall rose a big white house with a green roof and a dozen dark windows. Two stone lions guarded the gate. One of them had lost an ear years ago. Beyond the gate, a long gravel drive curved up between rows of dead h

By midnight, the east bedroom of the Red Rock estate was dark except for the light of a single phone.Graycie sat cross-legged in the middle of the big four-poster bed with her back against the headboard and the blanket pulled up to her waist. The house had gone quiet hours ago. Through the window she could see the black outline of the wall and the small yellow dot of a guard's torch moving slowly along it, back and forth, back and forth, like a clock hand that never reached any hour.She had not slept.Every time she closed her eyes she saw the number on her screen again.Ineligible for withdrawal.Ten thousand dollars that she could look at but not touch."Men," she whispered into the dark.The word tasted bitter.She turned the phone over in her hands. The screen reflected a face she hardly recognised. Swollen eyes. Dry lips. A line between the brows that hadn't been there before.She thought of Caspian.Not the Caspian who had walked into her room that evening with a cast on his ar

The lamp in the study had burned for three hours, and Caspian had barely noticed.He sat alone behind the desk with his laptop open and his cast resting on a cushion. The house was quiet. Jett had gone down at eight and all the maids had retired for the night. Somewhere in the distance, the old grandfather clock in the hallway struck eleven, slow and deep, and the sound faded into the carpet.On the screen in front of him, a document glowed.He had built it himself, line by line, over the last two nights. At the top, in bold letters, it said Clever Medical Group. Below it ran a clean chart with a single large slice shaded in dark blue. Seventy-three per cent. Under the chart were four columns. Andrew. Harry. The Board. And Orion. Beneath each name, a handful of short notes in his own blunt shorthand, some crossed out, some circled twice.Options.He read them again, slowly, and a quiet, cold calm settled over him.It frightened him a little, how calm he was. A month ago he had been a