2026-02-18 19:32:03
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CHAPTER 690
"Since you decided to fall out of a plane and lose your common sense," she whispered back, leaning her forehead against his for a brief, quiet moment of comfort.They sat in the dark for a few minutes, leaning on each other, two battered survivors stealing a breath while the rest of the world hunted them.Hugo pulled a small roll of medical gauze from his pocket, his last remaining supply, and began wrapping Molly’s leg as best he could in the shadows."It’s going to hurt," he warned."I told you," she said, smiling weakly and gripping his shoulder. "I’m used to it."After dodging the Syndicate patrol, Hugo and Molly had retreated deeper into the shadows of a rocky overhang. The forest hung heavy and silent, broken only by the distant, haunting crackle of the burning plane.Hugo worked quickly, breath coming in ragged hitches as he bound his ribs with strips of cloth torn from his undershirt. Every movement felt like a hot blade pressed into his side. He focused, brow furrowed, fing
CHAPTER 689
Molly looked down at her shoulder as if seeing it for the first time. She gave a small, weary shrug, her eyes softening as they met his."I'm used to it, Hugo," she said quietly, her voice small in the vast, dark woods. "It… it does hurt. But not as much as seeing you wake up. That hurt a lot more, thinking you were gone."A lump formed in Hugo’s throat. He reached out, gently taking her hand and squeezing it, despite the raw ache in his own fingers."You're too tough for your own good, you know that?" he murmured."One of us has to be," she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder for a fleeting moment.The fragile calm shattered with a low, distant sound.THOOM.Both of them looked up. Through the thick branches to the west, a brilliant streak of bleeding red tore through the sky, exploding into a crimson star that stained the fog pink."A flare," Hugo whispered, jaw tightening. "That's Lottie's signature. She's alive.""But if we can see it," Molly said, voice trembling as
CHAPTER 688
Looking around, she tried to remember where she was.She had seen this area before, at least from the air, but she had no idea where she had actually landed, how far the wind had carried her, or how far the nearest edge of civilization might be.The survivalist in her, the part she had trained to be cold and efficient, screamed at her to move.The Syndicate would have trackers on the ground within minutes.If she stayed, she was dead.If she moved, she might find Tedmond. But her heart felt anchored to the spot.How could she leave Clara here like discarded luggage?The thought of Syndicate finders, or worse, forest scavengers reaching her firs,t sent a different kind of pain through Lottie’s chest.“I can’t leave you,” Lottie groaned, trying to slide her arms beneath Clara’s shoulders.The moment she shifted the weight, a scream of protest tore from her hip.Her legs buckled.She collapsed back into the mud, gasping for air. She was too weak.Carrying a body through miles of jagged f
CHAPTER 687
A violent cough split the forest.“Kh—kgh!”A voice followed, raw and shredded. “Damn it…”The moonlight shifted, cutting through the dense canopy to reveal a pale, trembling midriff.Lottie lay sprawled in a bed of crushed ferns and jagged stones. Her shirt had been shredded and shoved up during the fall, exposing her belly, and the gruesome sight of a thick, jagged twig protruding from the soft flesh just above her hip.She reached down, her fingers slick with cold rain and warm blood. Her hands shook violently as she gripped the wood.“Son of a… mother… god!” she hissed through gritted teeth.She drew a ragged breath, her vision swimming with black spots.With a guttural grunt of pure agony, she yanked.“AAAGH! F—fuck!”The twig came free with a sickening, wet squelch.Lottie’s head slammed back into the mud, her body arching in a spasm of raw pain. She tossed the blood-stained wood into the darkness, her chest heaving as she fought to keep from blacking out.As the moonlight fin
CHAPTER 686
Albert paused, brows lifting as he considered the implications.An idea had formed in his mind, but he needed to shape it carefully.“Perhaps…” he began, trailing off.“Perhaps?” Thomas prompted, curiosity sharpening his tone.“To get something only a Washington can provide,” Albert whispered. “Think about the protocols. To unlock the family’s deep-reserve vaults, the ones holding Legacy tech and the offshore black sites, it requires two keys. One from the head of the family… and one from the heir.”He turned to the board, sketching a rough diagram to illustrate his point.“They aren’t hiding her from Tedmond. They’re trying to make him desperate enough to use his half of the key to save her. They’ve been waiting for him to grow tired. Waiting for him to stop thinking and start reacting.”Thomas glanced back at the monitors, at the signal-loss screen marking where the plane had gone down. The realization settled in.“They played us. They played all of us. Those people… they’re monste
CHAPTER 685
Thousands of miles away, in a room lit only by the cold glow of monitors, Thomas was losing his mind.His fingers flew across the keyboard, but the screens were a chaotic mess of flatlines and flashing SIGNAL LOST warnings.“I can’t find them! Albert, I can’t find them!” Thomas’s voice cracked with raw panic. “The transponders snapped off when the tail blew. One second, they were at thirty thousand feet, and the next—nothing! They’re just gone!”Albert didn’t respond. He sat perfectly still, face drained of color, staring at the last known GPS coordinate. He looked like a man watching the world end in real-time.“Albert! Say something!” Thomas slammed his fist onto the desk. “What was the last thing Marek said? Did he have a chute? Is Tedmond awake?”Slowly, Albert turned his head. The calculated mask he usually wore was shattered. His eyes were bloodshot, his jaw clenched so tightly the bone looked ready to snap. He didn’t look like a professional anymore; he looked like a man pushe
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