2025-07-26 17:07:56The SUV roared down the midnight highway, the city lights of Ravenport a blur outside the windows. Inside, silence hummed between Jeffrey and Camilla, broken only by the faint beeping of her vitals on Victor’s portable medscanner.
“She’ll live,” Victor said, stowing the device. “Bullet grazed her side. Missed anything vital. She’s lucky.”
Camilla winced as she leaned against the seat. “Don’t feel lucky.”
“You’re breathing,” Jeffrey said without looking at her. “That’s lucky enough.”
He held the safe on his lap like it was a bomb which, in a way, it was. A bomb packed with names, crimes, bribes, and betrayals. The kind that didn’t just end lives it ended legacies.
Camilla turned her head toward him. “When we open that, there’s no turning back.”
“We already passed that point,” he said.
Victor nodded. “So where are we going?”
Jeffrey’s eyes darkened. “Someplace no one would ever think I’d go.”
The gates groaned as Victor forced them open. Wind whistled through the iron bars, carrying the scent of damp earth and old secrets. Moonlight bathed the headstones in silver, but the crypt at the far end sat in cold shadow.
Jeffrey stepped out first, safe in hand, coat whipping in the wind. Camilla followed, limping slightly. Victor brought up the rear with a duffel bag of weapons and tools. “You sure this place is secure?” Camilla asked.
“No one’s used it in years,” Jeffrey said. “Not since my grandfather was buried. My father refused to come back after that. Said the dead should be left to rot in peace.”
Victor smirked. “Well, tonight, the dead are going to help us bring the living to justice.”
Inside, the crypt smelled of stone and secrets. Dust blanketed the floor. Marble plaques lined the walls. Jeffrey found the old maintenance room in the back, once used by groundskeepers, now converted into a makeshift bunker.
He set the safe on the steel table. Camilla lit a lantern. Victor locked the iron door, They were in, Now came the hard part.
Jeffrey stared at the safe’s keypad. “This model uses a 12-digit override code. It’s military grade.”
Victor stepped forward. “Then we brute-force it. I’ve got software that can try combinations.”
“No,” Jeffrey said. “I think I know the code.”
Camilla blinked. “You do?”
He exhaled slowly. “My father had a habit, he used the same code for things he wanted me to find someday. Birthday patterns. Hidden in chess scores. It was his way of testing me.”
Jeffrey typed slowly: 0406-1993-1210-195-9
Camilla tilted her head. “Your birthday and his?”
Jeffrey didn’t answer, The safe beeped.
Clicked, Unlocked. They all froze.
Victor pulled the lid open carefully, and inside, a single black ledger rested beneath a velvet cloth. No USBs. No backup drives. Just paper, Camilla stepped forward. “That’s it?”
Jeffrey opened the book, His breath caught. It was everything.
Names of politicians, CEOs, Foreign bank accounts, Illegal property acquisitions, Murder-for-hire contracts. A network stretching across continents, and at the center of it all, Henry Vance.
Camilla swallowed. “He owns half of Parliament. And half of Ravenport’s judiciary. This… this is treason.”
Jeffrey flipped another page, His own name stared back at him. Marked: “Liability. Watchlist. Neutralize if exposed.”
Camilla’s voice dropped. “They planned to kill you. Even before your exile.”
Jeffrey closed the ledger, hands trembling, Victor paced. “We leak this, we start a war.”
“Good,” Jeffrey said. “Let them come.”
Camilla hesitated. “There’s something else. The reason I was sent for the ledger, it wasn’t just about destroying it. They think there’s something else hidden with it. Something your father buried. A secondary document.”
Jeffrey frowned. “There was nothing else in the safe.”
But Victor was already scanning the walls. “Wait… here.”
He pressed his hand against the far wall of the crypt, where a faint groove circled a stone panel. He dug out a knife, pried at the edge and with a groan, the panel slid loose, revealing a hidden compartment.
Inside: a sealed envelope, yellowed with time. On it, written in his father’s handwriting: “To my firstborn son. When you’re ready to know the truth.”
Jeffrey stared at it, fingers trembling, Camilla placed a hand on his arm. “You don’t have to read it now.”
“I do.” He broke the seal, Inside was a handwritten letter.
Jeffrey,
I pretended to hate you to protect you. I had to keep you out of the family’s reach. They would’ve killed you if they knew how much I trusted you.
Zane was never meant to inherit. He wasn’t strong enough. But I had to play my part until I had enough proof to clean house.
The ledger is only the beginning. The real power is hidden deeper in the vault beneath Goodman Tower. Only you can access it. Only you know the combination. I made sure of that.
Be careful who you trust.
-R.G.
Jeffrey lowered the letter, Camilla looked at him. “Vault?”
Victor stepped forward. “Goodman Tower has a private sublevel. Never on the building plans. I’ve only heard rumors.”
Jeffrey’s face turned to stone. “My father buried the real crown there.”
Victor’s phone buzzed suddenly, he answered, Then his face drained of color. “Say that again.”
They Paused. He looked at Jeffrey, “It’s Zane. He just announced to the press that you’re under investigation for murder. The police have a warrant. They’re heading to every property you’ve ever touched.”
Jeffrey’s blood boiled. “He’s trying to smoke me out.”
Victor didn’t blink. “He’s trying to bury you. For good.”
Jeffrey looked at the ledger, then at the letter. “I need to get into that vault before Zane does.”
Camilla hesitated. “Jeffrey… if what your father said is true, what’s in that vault could be dangerous.”
“Everything’s dangerous now.”
“But what if it’s not just weapons or documents? What if it’s something worse? Something… alive?”
He met her gaze.“I’ll face whatever’s in that vault. Because whatever it is, it’s the only way I end this war.”
Suddenly-BOOM.
The door to the crypt blew off its hinges, Flashbangs rolled in. Light, Screams, Smoke, Victor shouted, “MOVE!” Gunfire erupted. Jeffrey grabbed the ledger and dove behind a marble slab, Camilla was pulled down beside him.
Victor returned fire, dropping two masked soldiers. “Who are they?” she yelled.
Jeffrey’s voice was ice. “Not police.”
He saw the insignia on one attacker’s sleeve as the smoke cleared: A black chess rook.
Camilla gasped. “That’s Henry Vance’s private security.” Victor fired another shot, But more were coming. Jeffrey looked at the exit tunnel behind the crypt wall.
Only one choice, He grabbed Camilla’s hand. “We run now. Or we die in this tomb.”
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Chapter 10 – The Hollow Grounds
2:13 A.M. Location: Goodman Estate – War RoomThe air in the war room buzzed with tension. Asher stood at the center, flanked by armed guards and screens pulsing with red alerts. Every remaining branch of the empire was on high alert, bleeding resources.Eleanor sat quietly beside him, her eyes trained on a blinking red dot that represented Jeffrey’s last confirmed location. “Why the Hollow Grounds?” Asher asked.Eleanor smiled faintly. “Because it’s where he was born. Not biologically… but forged. He doesn’t know it yet, but he will go there. The question is, who gets there first: Jeffrey… or the hunter?”Asher tightened his jaw. “Then we bait the trap. Let’s remind him what the Goodman name means.”He turned to his security lead. “Send in The Butcher.”A younger Jeffrey screamed as water flooded into a cold isolation tank, The voice of Henry Goodman echoed over a speaker: “Hold. Do not break. Do not panic.”Each minute, the pressure increased, the oxygen decreased. Children trainees
Chapter 9 – Dead Men Don’t Stay Silent
1:42 A.M. Location: The Vault, Off-Grid Safe HouseThe screen flickered before Jeffrey. Dozens of files filled the air in glowing red light names, faces, locations, all tied to the people who orchestrated his downfall. “Camilla,” he said, voice ice-cold. “Initiate purge protocol.”Camilla hesitated. “You’re sure?”Jeffrey’s eyes never left the file on-screen:Name: Asher Goodman.Status: CEO.Crimes: Fratricide, conspiracy, asset laundering, sanctioned assassination.He nodded once. “Burn everything tied to his empire. I want the world to feel his collapse.”She stepped forward, fingers flying over the console. “Purging… now.”Across the globe, a dozen Goodman accounts blinked out of existence. Satellites went dark. Buildings locked down. Executives lost access to bank vaults as firewalls collapsed and systems imploded.The Goodman Empire had just taken a bullet to the spine, Asher Goodman’s voice echoed through the boardroom like a whip crack. “Who the hell authorized a blackout on o
Chapter 8 – Burn the Bloodline
The wreckage of the downed helicopter still burned behind them, its smoke rising like a beacon into the black sky.Camilla crouched behind a half-toppled marble angel from the old sanitarium graveyard, adrenaline surging as rotors thundered above. Bullets cut the air around her like screaming banshees.Jeffrey stood calmly, his gaze locked on the remaining two helicopters. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes… they burned. “How the hell did you do that?” she gasped. “That chopper just exploded.”Jeffrey didn’t answer, Instead, he raised one hand toward the sky and snapped his fingers.The second chopper suddenly jerked midair, its rotors sputtering unnaturally, Inside, the pilot screamed, yanking the control stick as all systems flashed red. “We’ve lost hydraulics! Nav systems are rebooting on their own!”Then came a voice, not over comms, but in their heads: “You should’ve stayed out of my skies.”The chopper slammed nose-first into a tree line, bursting into orange flame, From the
Chapter 7 – The Lazarus Protocol
00:06… 00:05… 00:04…Camilla’s fingers flew across the ruined control panel, overriding every layer of encryption she could find. Sweat poured down her face, heart hammering. Each second that ticked down was a promise of death.“Come on, come on…” she hissed.00:03… The doors wouldn’t respond, The override was locked. She needed another way.00:02…Then she spotted it: a hardline access cable snaking beneath the console, leading toward the adjacent maintenance room. Manual bypass. Ancient tech, She grabbed her gun, kicked open the side panel, and dove inside.00:01…Too late, The timer hit zero, But instead of an explosion, A thick pulse of electromagnetic force shook the building, The lights died, The cameras shattered, And Jeffrey’s body twitched violently inside the sealed chamber, caught in a silent, invisible wave.Camilla stared at the blackened monitors. “What the hell was that?”Jeffrey convulsed once, twice, then everything stopped, No movement, No sound,Just his body, spraw
Chapter 6 – Echoes From the Grave
The van sped through the backstreets of the city like a hunted animal, headlights off, tires whispering over rain-slick asphalt. Inside, no one spoke.No one breathed too loud. The only sound was the replay of the video, Jeffrey’s father, barely alive, whispering a truth too dangerous to finish, Camilla rewound it again.The old man’s face was sunken. Tubes snaked through his nose, machines blinking behind him. But his eyes, those sharp, calculating Goodman eyes, still burned with fire.“Jeffrey… if you’re watching this… they failed to kill me, but they will come again and the truth, the truth is not what you think.”Then static.No time. No place. Just a digital ghost clinging to life, Jeffrey stared at the screen, jaw clenched, Victor finally broke the silence. “This doesn’t make sense. He died three years ago. Autopsy. Public funeral. I was there.”“So was I,” Camilla said quietly.Jeffrey spoke without looking at them. “What if we were never supposed to see the real body?”Victor
Chapter 5 – Smoke Without a Fire
By dawn, the smoke from the underground vault had reached the streets above. Firetrucks surrounded Goodman Tower, lights flashing red and white like a battlefield wound pulsing through the concrete.Local authorities swarmed the area, trying to contain the damage unaware they were standing on top of a war.Jeffrey watched it all from across the street, cloaked in a black hoodie and a baseball cap pulled low over his face, Camilla leaned on the bench beside him, pale, stitched, and still trembling from the adrenaline of the night before.Victor hadn’t spoken in twenty minutes, he sat across from them, one eye swollen from the beating he took. Bandages covered one side of his jaw. His pistol was tucked under the long coat he wore like a second skin.The city had no idea it was on the edge of collapse. Yet, Jeffrey broke the silence first. “Henry didn’t know it was a decoy. That bought us maybe twelve hours.”Victor gave a dry, blood-flecked cough. “Should’ve let me shoot him when I had
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