2025-10-28 16:55:07The dawn smelled like iron and the city’s old cigarette smoke. Victor woke with his jaw clenched, the coin a cold weight in his palm.
Kai was already up, sweeping a corner with a battered broom, eyes bright with that raw, boyish hope that made Victor both protective and careful. “Mira?” Victor asked.
“She’s been watching the bookie’s back entrance all night,” Kai said. “Says the guard falls asleep when the rain comes hard. Today’s dry, he’ll nap.”
Victor squinted toward the skyline, where glass towers took the sun like trophies. Donovan’s name glinted at the top of one of them in letters that felt like verdicts. He felt the system’s hum, patient and clinical.
[Mission update: Ledger acquisition]
[Recommended approach: Stealth infiltration with social engineering backup]
[Ally involvement: Mira (insider), Kai (lookout)]
[Risk: Moderate-high]
[Reward: Full ledger copy]
Victor slid the coin into his palm and pocketed it. “We move,” he said.
They walked like a small army of three. Mira blended into the morning crowd, a shadow with a smile.
Kai watched alleys; his ears were keen. Victor watched people’s faces, noting the small betrayals and balances of power.
The city was a ledger itself, credits and debts written in posture and sneer.
Outside the bookie’s shop on Fourth, the sign creaked. Nolan’s windows were steamed; his back room smelled of smoke and old money.
Victor paused, then turned to Mira. “You sure the guard sleeps?” he asked.
Mira’s lip twitched. “He snores like a drunken preacher. I’ve timed his naps. At nine twenty he’s out like a log.”
“Then nine ten,” Victor said. “Kai, you keep the street. I go in with Mira. You should be ready to yell if anyone comes.”
Kai nodded, small and fierce. “Got it.”
They slipped inside. The shop was darker than it looked from outside, ledgers stacked like sleeping animals, receipts folded like secrets.
Nolan’s face lit up when he recognized Mira, then narrowed when Victor stepped forward, damp clothes and hungry eyes. “What’s this?” Nolan said. “You brought gutter fish into my den?”
“Gutter fish with a question,” Victor answered. “Where do you keep the ledger you brag about? Under the floorboards? In the false drawer? Show me and I’ll make you richer.”
Nolan made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sniff. “You’re bold. Or stupid.” He leaned back. “You don’t get into my ledger without a coin.”
Victor let the system thread cool logic through his words. [Social Pressure vector: Humiliation]
He smiled as if someone had told a joke.
“You remember last week?” Victor said softly, voice sugar and razor. “You took a cut from a fight you didn’t run. You sold favors on both sides. You gave Donovan a list of names and then leaked one to prevent a rival from finding them. You did it because you liked being the man who knew everything.”
Nolan’s eyes darted. “Who told you?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Victor tapped a finger on the counter, slow, tiny. “What matters is that if you don’t show me where your ledger sleeps, I’ll ask Donovan about the same favors you sold. I’ll tell him how you took from both sides. I’ll tell him that you kept a side ledger where you wrote the names of donors who didn’t get their cut.”
The room shifted. Men in the shop exchanged looks that smelled like fear. Nolan’s face dripped color. “You’ll get me killed.”
Victor shrugged, casual as a death sentence. “Then die trying to keep what you stole. Or live and show me where the paper is.”
A scrape sounded at the door, footsteps. Victor’s head snapped up as security shifted. Mira’s hand touched his sleeve. “Now,” she mouthed.
They moved. Mira slipped behind the counter; Victor tilted the ledger stack, found the wrong board, then the right one.
A small, hollowed space held a thin bundle wrapped in oilcloth. He slipped it out and slid it under his coat like a prize. Outside, a voice barked. “Hey!”
Kai did not need to shout. A patrolling cop squinted at the storefront. Victor felt the system prickle.
[Enemy Murray: Alerted]
[Donovan watch: Increased]
[Suggested: Delay exit? No]
“Easy,” Victor whispered, keeping his voice low and steady. He smiled at Nolan as if they’d shared a joke. “Thanks. For the trade.”
Nolan’s face contorted, anger, relief, shame, knots that would not smooth easily. People in the room looked away, instinctively knowing what had been taken from them.
Victor felt that sudden warmth, the system’s approval spilling like heat into his skull.
[Reward granted: +150 credits]
[Ally interest increased]
[Enemy flag: Nolan vulnerable]
They slipped out, hearts hammering. The street smelled different with the ledger in his coat, like power.
Kai grinned like a kid with contraband. Mira’s eyes flashed with something close to admiration. “You did it,” Kai whispered.
Victor exhaled, breath fogging. “We did it.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10. Public Unraveling 2
Murray went rigid. “I, he was there. He was with Nolan. He could be the conduit.”Donovan’s gaze sharpened until it cut. “And if he’s the conduit, why did you make him public? Why did you not bring me silence and a name? You acted for adulation, not results.”Murray swallowed. “I thought?”“You thought like a man who wants noise,” Donovan said. “Noise is useless. Answers are currency.”The room trembled with the weight of that statement. Murray’s face opened like someone who’d been told his hand was empty.“Find me the leak,” Donovan said. “Quietly. Bring me facts, not theater. If you cannot, you will prove yourself expendable.”Murray’s shoulders sagged like a man who’d been given a razor and told to judge himself. He had sought glory and, in pursuit, exposed his own incompetence.Victor, watching Donovan’s office from the shadowed edge of the tower via Lena’s small, nervous texts, felt a grim, efficient pleasure. His plan had not required a corpse; it required a crack. Murray had p
Chapter 9. Public Unraveling
The morning rush was a blade, sharp, relentless. Newsstands spat out headlines; voices in cafés rose with the tempo of gossip. Donovan’s name trembled on the lips of clerks and cabbies like a rumor that had learned to bite.Victor watched the city pull at the thread he had set and felt a cold satisfaction. He sat on a battered bench outside a courthouse.The ledger safely hidden beneath his jacket, and let the system whisper options and probabilities into the back of his skull.[Operation Murray: Active][Public sentiment: Malleable] [Ally position: Lena (internal)][Suggested Next: Observe Murray’s reaction; exploit missteps]A paper snapped into his lap, Mira, always precise, delivered it like a practiced handoff. She collapsed beside him, breathless and bright, as if reveling in the electricity.“Did you see it?” she asked, fingers trembling. “Front page. Nolan’s ledger name Lark & Stone. It’s all over the feeds.”Victor nodded without looking at the headline. “Good. Murray will
Chapter 8. The Inside Thread
“Tell me again why I should trust you,” Lena asked, voice thin as paper. Her office smelled of printer toner and a nervousness that had soaked into the upholstery.Victor didn’t flinch. He sat with easy patience, the ledger folded in a small, unassuming case on his lap. “Because if you don’t, Murray will break you in two and call it efficiency,” he said. “Because if you don’t, Donovan will patch your name on the public board and watch it rust. Because if you help me, you keep the one thing you need most, control.”Lena’s hands twisted in her lap. “You think Donovan will give me control if I help you sling dirt at his men?”“I don’t think,” Victor said. “I know how men like Donovan value the illusion of order. You give him a solved problem, someone to blame, and he rewards the fixer who found the tidy answer. You want reassignment? Promotion? A clean record? You help us sew the pattern we want him to see.”Lena’s laugh was brittle. “You make it sound like charity.”“It’s not charity.”
Chapter 7. The Runner’s Fall 2
The vendor shrugged. “A kid. Called it a favor. Said a man on Mercer told him to hand it to you.”Murray’s muscles bunched. “Where’s Mercer?”“Two blocks. Ask around.” The vendor already had the next customer in mind. Murray left like a man on rails, the scrap burning his pocket.He found Mercer busy, the alleys congested with morning trade. A messenger boy pointed toward a stairwell. “Saw a group leave. A wet man, a girl, a kid.” He spat. “Shouldn’t be here.”Murray’s eyes narrowed. The description fit Victor’s rumor-perfect face. He marched back to Donovan Tower as if blood were a map and he could follow it. He didn’t know Victor, but he would make him known. Victor watched Murray’s approach from two windows away. The man moved fast; he carried panic like a cloak. Victor felt the system’s cool annotation: [Murray: impulsive] [Predictable response: Direct confrontation] [Suggested manipulation vector: Staged public humiliation followed by internal blame]Victor dialed a number,
Chapter 6. The Runner’s Fall
“Donovan wants the rat found,” Murray barked into his communicator, pacing the private hallway like a caged thing. “Find him. Bring him to me. No questions.”A clipped voice answered on the line. “Already on it, Murray. Check the Mercer feeds. There was a leak this morning.”Murray spat, anger raw. “A leak? I want a name, not gossip. I want a face that I can break.”He slammed the phone shut and forced a smile for the men waiting with him, two hulking enforcers who read loyalty like a ledger. “We’ll sweep Mercer. We clear Nolan. No one touches Donovan.”Outside Donovan Tower, the city moved as if nothing had happened. Inside, a man named Murray moved like a man whose pride had been singed. He had orders. He had fear. He had to show results.“Find him,” Donovan said later, in a voice that sounded like an exam you couldn’t pass. His office smelled of mahogany and the slow burn of expensive liquor. He laid the printed feed on his desk, hands steepled. “Bring me the one who took my paper.
Chapter 5. Ledger in the Light 2
They split, Mira to the safehouse, Kai to watch, Victor to the shadows where the city speaks in soft threats. He unwrapped the oilcloth with hands that were steady now. The ledger’s pages were dense with names and numbers, bribes penciled beside company stamps, dates, small notations of “paid” and “settled.” It was a map of favors and a machine for making people pay. He ran a finger along a line where a name, Donovan Enterprises, appeared with a series of small, coded references to another shell company named Lark & Stone. Victor’s throat tightened. “Donovan used a shell to launder funds?” Mira said, peering over his shoulder. “That’s big.”“Bigger,” Victor said. He felt the system’s cold calculation. [Target identified: Murray][Secondary target: Donovan’s internal account Lark & Stone][Suggested action: Public exposure of Nolan to force the rest of the network to reveal themselves.]Victor’s smile sharpened. “We don’t just keep this. We put it where everyone can read it.”Mira
You may also like
Billionaire in Disguise
Faith122.9K viewsReturn Of The Dragon Lord
Snowwriter 134.2K viewsReturn of the son-in-law
Chessman75.9K viewsBuilding My Life
Anderson José143.3K viewsCEO's Revenge- She Begged After the Divorce
Temmyfrosh78 viewsThe Majestic Trillionaire Heir, Dave Wayne
PASCALY389 viewsThe Rise of Ethan Ryder: The Despised Husband & CEO
PaulyP2.5K viewsRAY MARTIN CODE
Pen Lord125 views