"You audacious madman! How dare you commit violence here!"Commander Orion Knox stormed forward with a thunderous shout, his sidearm leveled squarely at Gideon. The veins in his neck stood out like cords, his face flushed crimson with fury.Gideon remained utterly composed. When Elias Vance gave him a subtle shake of the head, he stayed his hand and settled back into a posture of coiled readiness."Get on your knees this instant and surrender! I might just spare your worthless lives!" Knox roared, his eyes bloodshot. Two of his most trusted men lay in uncertain fate, and beneath the shock, grief and rage churned through him in equal measure.Elias regarded him with icy detachment. "Who gave you the authority to assume command of the 24th Division's operations? And who authorized you to place Division Commander Marcus Bishop under house arrest?""You dare speak to me in this manner?!" Knox bellowed. "Whose lapdog are you? Do you really think whoever's backing

Elias Vance took the medical file casually, glanced at it for no more than two seconds, and handed it back with an indifferent nod. "You're the expert. Arrange it however you see fit.""What kind of bullshit expert is he compared to the Dr. Ashford I brought in from Valoria City?" Vincent Beaumont barked from across the corridor, his voice carrying the entitled edge of a man accustomed to buying his way into relevance.Dr. Harrison Mercer turned at the outburst, and at that same moment, Dr. Byron Ashford caught sight of the man standing beside Elena Croft's gurney. The color drained from Ashford's face. He froze mid-step, mouth slightly open, as though he had just seen a ghost.If Elias Vance was the god soldiers prayed to on the battlefield, then Harrison Mercer occupied the exact same throne in the world of orthopedic medicine. His name was spoken in lecture halls and operating theaters with the reverence usually reserved for the dead. But Mercer was very much alive

Several vehicles pulled up to the construction site entrance, and Bruno Maddox, a towering bull of a man, charged in with a pack of thugs bristling with hostility."Get your foot off him!" Bruno barked the moment he entered, spotting Clyde Barrett pinned face-down in the mud under Elias Vance's boot.Clyde's spirits soared at the sound. "Bruno! You made it! Help me!"Elias's expression remained cold. If anything, he pressed down harder, grinding Clyde's head another few inches deeper into the muck."You son of a bitch, you've got a death wish!" Bruno roared, his voice booming across the half-built framework of the construction site.Only then did Elias lift his foot, kicking Clyde so he rolled across the muddy ground like discarded trash. His tone was flat, almost bored. "He's under your protection?"Bruno sneered. "Pretty boy, I've never seen your face around Cresthaven before. Who's your boss? Did he send you here looking for a fight?"There was

"Stop!"The roar came too late. The wheels had already rolled forward.Clyde Barrett and Bruno Maddox let out screams so raw and agonizing they seemed to split the air itself. The pain was beyond anything either man had ever experienced, a white-hot obliteration that nearly dragged them both into unconsciousness on the spot. Bruno's legs had been crushed beneath the vehicle's massive tires, his trousers flattened and soaked through with a sickening mixture of blood and marrow that pooled across the pavement. Clyde fared no better. His tolerance was lower, and he had already blacked out entirely, his body going limp against the ground.Only after the vehicle came to a full stop did the woman step out. She moved with the easy confidence of a born soldier, her posture straight and her expression unreadable as she approached Elias Vance. "Mr. Vance, your orders have been carried out."Elias gave a slight nod, his gaze calm and unhurried. "Well done. What's your name?

The Lenco BearCat that Commander Calder had delivered to Elias Vance was an imposing beast of a vehicle, turning heads wherever it rolled, with an interior spacious enough to seat a small platoon.Still, the Croft siblings insisted on riding separately, so Maya Brooks took the wheel of a second car with Elena and Leo as her passengers.Midway through the drive, Gideon took a phone call. When he hung up, he turned to Elias with visible satisfaction in his expression. "Marshal Vance, we have fresh intelligence on Miss Aria Vance. The search perimeter has been significantly narrowed. It shouldn't be long before we locate her."Elias received the news with a measured nod. "Good work. Tell them to keep pushing. I want Aria found as soon as possible."In the back seat, Tobias and Sarah Vance exchanged a glance, their eyes shining with barely contained emotion. After three long years of silence, even a sliver of hope felt like salvation.The road leading to Arthur