2025-11-06 04:33:40Headlights carved golden tunnels through dripping darkness as the Suburban was completely engulfed by the subway tube. Overhead, corroded pipes plinked with water. Alexander killed the engine next to a platform covered with graffiti. The air tasted of old pennies and mold.
The girl's head lolled on Tatiana's shoulder as she carried her down the stairs. Cole soaked the former Ranger's side with blood as he supported Grayson. The woman staggered, her face swelling, as Victoria pulled her by the zip-ties.
A maintenance door was kicked open by Alexander. Inside are monitors flickering with city feeds, folding tables, and buzzing generators. He strapped Lucy's ankles and threw her onto a metal chair.
"Speak," he said in a flat voice.
Lucy's lip broke, gushing blood. Benjamin first appeared at the shelter three years ago. claimed that if I monitored Tatiana, he would locate Jacob. fed him every bedtime tale and every word from his "daddy."
Mira's blanket caused Tatiana's knuckles to turn white. "You put my daughter to sleep at night?"
"Had to." Lucy's chuckle broke. Diapers were paid for by him. said that it was only transitory.
Alexander cut her left tie with a knife. Jacob's place. Right now.
“Glen Burnie, foster home. Oak Lane, 1427. Carla Ruiz is a social worker. Lucy begged with her eyes. "All I wanted was my boy."
The shirt was ripped back, and Grayson slumped against a table. Raw meat gleamed from the gaping slash. "Needle. thread. Whisky.
Cole tossed a flask and dug through a medical kit. With one hand, Grayson grabbed it, took a sip, and then poured the remainder over the wound. He threaded a crooked needle while hissing.
Victoria's shoulder wound crusted as she leaned against the wall. "Benjamin's bastard is ahead of schedule. We receive Mira's antidote regimen in exchange for Jacob.
After brushing the girl's curls off her forehead, Tatiana placed Mira on a cot. She is clammy. The fever is rising.
Alexander knelt down and touched Mira's neck with two fingers. The pulse was too quick. Regarding the dosage, Harrison is lying. He desires that we pursue ghosts.
Lucy's voice cracked. "If I don't check in by dawn, he'll kill Jacob."
Cole looked at his timepiece. "Four hours."
With his knife still in his hand, Alexander stood. "After that, we proceed."
Tatiana was in his way. "You're bleeding." Warm and moist, his shirt adhered to his ribs when she caressed them. "When?"
"Water tower." I was grazed by the sniper. He gave a shrug. "Adrenaline."
She tore open his shirt. There was an oozing furrow along his ribcage. "Take a seat."
He complied. She used vodka to disinfect the wound and used steady hands to suture it. There was a groan with every draw of thread.
With a needle piercing his own flesh, Grayson observed. "Are you two finished acting like doctors?"
Tatiana bit the thread and tied off the suture. "You live, he lives."
Victoria moved away from the wall. Lucy will go with me. If we push it, Glen Burnie takes an hour.
Alexander gave a headshake. "Everyone leaves. Harrison anticipates a lone wolf.
Cole put new magazines in. Van is gassed. The drone is charged. We roll at five o'clock.
Mira, blanket and everything, was hoisted by Tatiana. "Ghost Daddy," the girl muttered as she stirred.
Alexander bowed his chest. He gave her a temple kiss. "Baby, I'm here."
In Cole's pocket, Lucy's burner buzzed. He threw it over. Unknown figure. Alexander replied.
Harrison's arrogant voice. "Tick-tock. She's getting pale.
The plastic in Alexander's grip broke. "Oak Lane." Dawn. Bring Jacob.
Bring the patents with you. transferred to Benjamin. Or the child receives a gunshot along with her breakfast.
The call went dead.
Tatiana had fire in her eyes. "He's playing a bluff."
"No," Lucy said in a whisper. "He isn't."
After tying his stitches, Grayson got up. "We confront him with the fight."
Victoria looked at her handgun. "I am aware of a shortcut. old freight line. saves twenty minutes.
Cole put the medical gear on. "Let's go."
With boots resounding, they filed out. Tatiana and Mira were carried by Alexander. With zip-ties slicing red lines onto her wrists, Lucy moved between Victoria and Cole.
The Suburban sprang to life with a roar. The tunnel was pierced by headlights. Tires wailing on damp concrete, Cole floored it.
On the gearshift, Tatiana's hand touched Alexander's. Sweat and blood slickened their intertwined fingers.
"After this, we vanish," she stated. island. No masks.
He gave a squeeze. "Make a commitment."
They were spewed onto the parkway from the tunnel. The lights of D.C. flickered by. The screen of the drone controller glowed as Grayson keyed it. "Harrison's van recently went beyond the county boundary. He's going north.
Tires screeching, Cole made a sharp right turn. "We will stop him at the overpass."
Victoria bent over. Carla Ruiz. social worker. She works for Benjamin, right?
Lucy gave a nod. "Half the foster system belongs to him."
Tatiana spoke in an icy tone. "So tonight, we own her."
Mira's eyelids fluttered wide as she stirred. "Mom?"
Tatiana gave her face a little pat. "Shhh. Rest, sweetheart.
As Alexander changed gears, his shirt rode up. Radiation scars glowed beneath him like molten rivers, and fresh ink poured across his chest, writing MIRA in bold script.
Tatiana gasped for air. "When?"
"Blackridge. each anniversary. His voice broke. "Maintained my sanity."
Her fingers were shaking as she traced the letters. She braced herself on his shoulder when the car struck a pothole.
The drone feed for Grayson pings. Harrison has halted. Route 50: abandoned warehouse. One adult and one child's heat signatures are displayed by the thermal.
Cole smiled. "Ambush."
Victoria courted by cocking her pistol. "My favorite."
With its headlights off and it getting dark, the Suburban roared into the night.
Moments later, Tatiana raced through the warehouse doors, her gaze fixed on the ink.
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Chapter 190: Sealed Breath
In the sudden silence, the seed's pulse sounded like a silent thunderclap. It wasn’t a threat. It was true. There was a period at the end of a sentence, but it had rolled under the desk and was just waiting to be picked up. They didn’t speak. They merely stared at the little, black glimmer on the white sand. It was beneath the slide, or where the slide had been, but it was now only a metal curve protruding from the dune that had been washed by the sand. “We could leave it,” Alexander remarked, his voice scratchy. He wrapped a protecting arm around Mira, who was quiet, watching the seed with a child’s somber interest. “Bury it deeper. Forget it’s here.” “It would grow,” Tatiana responded, her own voice weary beyond measure. "In the dark." without anyone to observe it. What kind of story blooms in the dark, alone?” She thought about Benjamin, nurturing his hatred in seclusion. "A perverse one." A spiteful one. Thus, we demolish it. Right now. He took a step toward it, his foot sinki
Chapter 189: Death Fruit
The playground was eerily quiet. There was no longer any wind. The distant sounds of the suburb were gone. On the wood chips, it was just the three of them: Tatiana on her knees, a sobbing seven-year-old Mira clutching to her, and Alexander Harrington's elderly, breathless husk with a jar of his final sigh sitting on his ribcage. The floating orchard was gone. The sky was a neutral, flat blue. The golden swing lay neglected, its chains now dull and inactive. All that existed was this finale. CHAPTER 400. Tatiana stared at the jar. The label was final. Absolute. This was not feasible. It was a receipt. For all the struggles, loops, and love that had unavoidably brought us to this point. To a playground where her spouse died of old age in minutes, his life-force robbed to pay the mortgage of 215 destroyed tragedies. Mira’s small hands clutched her mother’s arm. “Is Daddy sleeping?” The innocent question was a knife. Tatiana said in a cracked voice, "No, sweetheart." “He’s… gone.” I
Chapter 188: Sky Swing
The fruit was a gut-punch of recollection made tangible. Tatiana could hear the ghost of her own cry, feel the slick heat of Alexander's blood through her clothes, and smell the cordite and champagne from the gala. Trapped in that sphere of smoked glass, it was all there, a museum display of her biggest failure. To reach Mira, she would have to fly past it. Its proximity seemed toxic, a psychological radiation that threatened to suck her back into that moment, to make her feel the death that had defined so much of their war. Mira swung, heedless in her enchanted sleep, a trapped princess in a floating necropolis of horrible endings. This is his creation, Tatiana realized, hovering, her twilight wings beating the thin air. In order to trap her among the ruins, he enticed her up here. To remind me of the cost of every victory. Benjamin weaponized their own past since he was no longer able to prevail in a straight fight. She gazed from the Death Fruit to her daughter. A choice. Confr
Chapter 187: Swing Altar
The sight of their daughter, ankle-locked to a golden swing and soaring into the heavens with a puppet’s laugh, broke something in Alexander. The cool, strategic half of him was destroyed, leaving only raw, paternal terror. He yelled, "MIRA!" and lunged for the swing set. However, the swing was no longer fixed to the playground's typical A-frame. The cables stretched skyward, unimaginably long, vanishing into the cloud layer. The actual machinery was someplace in the heavens; the set was really a stand-in. Harrison-13 stood back, his hands in his pockets, gazing with a peaceful, inquisitive look, as if seeing an interesting science experiment. He was no longer the shy boy next door. He served a purpose. A plot device. Tatiana didn’t spend breath on shouts. She stared down at her own body, at the ripped bridal robe. She focused on the region between her shoulder blades, where the storm-cloud wings had erupted. They were gone, but the canal was burnt open. The phantom agony served a
Chapter 186: Priest Smile
The word “granddaughter” hung in the fragrant air of the false cathedral, a spider’s thread of possession. Benjamin’s smile returned, thinner now, harsher. The rebellious bride, Tatiana, was not in his line of sight. His sights were on the prize, the heir. Standing motionless in her maid of honor's gown on Mira-20. Benjamin reiterated, his voice a calming, toxic tune, "The story must go on." We transplant to another branch if one fails to produce fruit. The tree is alive. The orchard endures.” He extended a hand toward Mira. “Come, child. Take your mother’s place at the altar. Accept your legacy. After all, you have a birthright to it. Mira remained still. Her eyes were wide, fixated on Tatiana. She was the seventy-year-old female who had nibbled the apple from Chapter 1. She was aware of the price of legacy. Alexander discovered his voice, a rough rasp of sound. “You don’t touch her.” Benjamin’s gaze flicked to him, amused. “Or what, Alexander? Will you use your naked hands to de
Chapter 185: Gold Wedding
It was triggered by the taste. A circuit was finished when a synapse fired. The rented ranch house, the stormy backyard, the chain-link fence, all of it melted like a watercolor painting in the rain. The sensations from the fruit became reality. The aroma of myrrh and orange flowers permeated the thick, fragrant air of a large, packed room. The sensation of silk became the heavy, structured weight of a wedding gown on her torso. The organ's sound gave way to the grand, soaring sounds of Wagner's "Bridal Chorus." Tatiana blinked. In a vast, gothic church, she stood at the end of a long, red-carpeted aisle. Stained glass windows portraying not saints, but elaborate, abstract patterns of thorns and roses, reflect colored light on the stone floor. Hundreds of guests sat in pews, their faces a jumble of happiness and sorrow. All were dressed in impeccable, formal clothing. She was clutching a bouquet of white roses and black calla lilies. She looked to her left. Alexander stood there
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