Home / Mystery/Thriller / Echoes in the Dark / CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 20

Author: Didi

2025-08-21 20:52:45

The police dragnet tightened around the warehouse district like a noose, but Adrian had planned for this moment with the cold precision of a man who understood that survival often came down to preparation and timing.

The monitors showed search teams moving in coordinated sweeps, their flashlights cutting through the early morning gloom like silver blades. Adrian watched them work, noting their patterns, their blind spots, the way they cleared buildings with textbook efficiency. Professional, thorough, but predictable.

"They're good," Mara observed, standing beside him at the bank of screens. "But they're searching for fugitives, not ghosts."

Adrian's fingers moved across the keyboard, activating systems he'd hoped never to use. Throughout the warehouse district, cameras that looked like security equipment but fed into his private network began tracking the search teams. Motion sensors disguised as utility boxes started mapping their movements. The hunters had become the hunted, and

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CHAPTER 38
The dripping water in the subway station was steady, like a metronome that refused to let them forget time was still moving. Each drop fell with cruel precision, echoing in the vast hollow belly of the city, a rhythm of decay. The city above carried on its restless hum—trains howling in the distance, voices faint but always present, the sounds of a place that swallowed blood without choking.Adrian sat against cracked tiles, his back pressed to the cool damp wall. His breathing was even but heavy, a soldier’s attempt at discipline slipping through the cracks of exhaustion. The torn sleeve of his jacket stuck to the wound he hadn’t bothered to treat yet, fabric hardened into a dark crust. His jaw was clenched tight, shadowed with stubble and resolve.Mara crouched across from him. She hadn’t moved in minutes, not even when a rat skittered across the tracks and disappeared into a tunnel mouth. Her knees burned, her muscles begged to shift, but she couldn’t—not while the flash drive was
CHAPTER 37
The warehouse breathed with silence—an oppressive, waiting kind of silence. The men in the shadows had not spoken, had not shifted, had not even raised their weapons. They stood like statues, their presence alone enough to tighten the air.At the desk, the man in the gray suit watched Adrian with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. His fingers traced lazy circles across the papers before him as though none of this were unexpected, as though Adrian and Mara were already pieces he had moved across a board.Adrian’s gun remained leveled, his body still as stone. “Name,” he said flatly.The man in gray chuckled softly. “Names have weight, Mr. Cross. Surely you of all people understand the power of leaving one’s own… unspoken.”He leaned back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other. “But if it eases you, you may call me an accountant of sorts. A custodian of order, if you prefer. My task is simple—ensure the numbers align, ensure the flow continues, ensure… interruptions are dealt wi
CHAPTER 36
The night had thinned, but the city did not relent. Its veins still glowed with restless neon, its breath still thick with smoke and rain. In a forgotten quarter of crumbling tenements, Adrian Cross sat in silence, the badge that once gave him a name was now nothing more than a memory.The safehouse was quiet, but not still. The bookkeeper shifted in his corner like a rat in a snare, whispering prayers or curses under his breath. Mara worked with rigid precision, fingers ghosting across lines of code that scrolled endlessly across the cracked monitor. And Adrian—Adrian sat with his back to the wall, a cigarette burning down between two fingers, though he hadn’t taken a drag in minutes.The silence was heavier than any chain.Ross’s words still pressed into him like a bruise: It’s official. Your authority is gone.Adrian turned the cigarette, watching the ember fade into ash. He had carried the badge for years, not as a shield but as a blade—one that cut doors open, one that demanded s
CHAPTER 35
The city did not sleep. Not really. It shifted, it groaned, it hid its ugliness beneath layers of neon and shadow, but beneath the surface its pulse was restless. And on this night, Adrian Cross felt it more than ever.They slipped from Mara’s lab into the dripping avenues, the faint glow of storm-scattered lights still bleeding off the streets. The bookkeeper waited where they’d left him, curled against the wall like a discarded rag doll, eyes darting up as though he’d been watching for their return every second.“You—” he stammered, trying to rise, “you came back—”Adrian silenced him with a look. “Move.”The man stumbled forward, his feet splashing shallow puddles, his breath ragged with fear. Adrian kept him ahead, Mara at his side. Lane’s voice still lingered in the back of his skull, replaying with the quiet authority of someone who had meant every word.Curiosity can be fatal.Some hills aren’t worth the body count.Adrian’s grip tightened on the case. Lane had left like a man
CHAPTER 34
The drizzle turned the city streets into mirrors, each broken light refracting into a thousand wavering fragments. Adrian moved through them like a shadow, the case pressed close to his side, Mara keeping stride at his shoulder. The bookkeeper trailed behind, half-dragged, half-driven forward, his eyes darting with animal fear.The warehouse lay behind them now, abandoned to the echoes of Ross’s command. Yet his presence lingered. Every footstep Adrian took felt weighed by it. Every silence Mara carried seemed heavy with unspoken questions.They slipped through back alleys until the roar of the city dulled, the storm’s remnants humming in gutters and drains. Only then did Adrian break the quiet.“We can’t stay buried forever,” he murmured.Mara adjusted her hood, her voice tight. “No. But we can’t keep moving blind either. I think I need to get to the lab.”Adrian’s eyes cut toward her. “The lab?”She met his look, her jaw set. “If Roland’s making moves, if the Syndicate’s pulling str
CHAPTER 33
The rain eased by the time they prepared to leave the warehouse. It came not as a cleansing but as a whisper — soft, persistent, carrying the weight of everything that had happened.Ross pulled on his coat once more, his movements calm, deliberate, as though none of it — the storm, the blood, the chase — had touched him at all. His men fell into silent ranks, disciplined shadows that would vanish as quickly as they had appeared.Adrian checked the case again before finally securing it under his arm. Mara moved closer, her eyes scanning every exit, her shoulders taut with unspent tension.Ross’s gaze swept over them, lingering only briefly. “You’ll hold here for the night,” he said, his tone firm, practical, like any commander giving orders. “At first light, move discreetly. The city won’t be quiet for long.”Adrian gave a short nod. “And you?”Ross adjusted his gloves, his voice steady, unreadable. “I have other matters to settle. Stay sharp, Cross. You’ve carried weight heavier than

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