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Chapter 412 The Hunters Become the Hunted
Laith noticed him at the bus station. A man in a grey jacket, standing too still, reading a newspaper that never turned a page. Ordinary, maybe, to anyone else. But Laith had been trained to see what others missed.He boarded the bus heading north, taking a seat near the back. The man in grey followed, sitting three rows ahead, his back to Laith. Too close to be coincidence. Too deliberate to be random.Laith's mind raced through his options. He had no armor—his bag contained the pieces, but he couldn't assemble them here, on a crowded bus, without causing panic. He had no backup—his team was scattered, and Hazem was in hiding, and Ali was with Haneen and the baby, and Hadi would just yell at him again.He could lead the tail away from the city. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere he could fight.The bus rumbled through the outskirts of Askalan, past the last clusters of buildings, into the open countryside. Laith watched the landscape through the window—hills, olive groves, the occasional far
Chapter 411 Shadows in the Rearview
The streets of Askalan were crowded with evening traffic, but Laith noticed the black sedan three turns ago. It stayed back, kept its distance, never got close enough to be obvious. But it was there. Always there.He accelerated slightly, weaving through traffic, taking a sudden right turn that wasn't on his usual route. The sedan followed. He took another turn, then another, circling through a residential neighborhood, watching his rearview mirror.The sedan was still there.Laith's jaw tightened. He had been careful. He thought he had been careful. But somehow, somewhere, they had picked up his trail.He pulled into a crowded market street, the kind of place where cars could barely fit, where pedestrians spilled into the road and drivers leaned on their horns. The sedan hesitated at the entrance, then tried to follow.Laith didn't give them the chance. He cut through an alley too narrow for the sedan, emerged on a parallel street, and disappeared into the flow of traffic. When he ch
Chapter 410 The Football Pitch
The afternoon sun blazed down on the dusty football pitch on the outskirts of Askalan. To anyone passing by, it looked like an ordinary training session—a group of young men in mismatched sports jerseys, running drills, practicing passes, scrimmaging under the watchful eye of their coach.But the coach was Marwan. And nothing about this was ordinary."Zayd, you're drifting too far left on the press," Marwan called out, his voice carrying across the pitch. "Remember what I told you about maintaining your shape. The opening will come. You just have to be patient."Zayd, a lanky seventeen-year-old with quick feet and quicker hands, nodded and adjusted his position. What the casual observer would interpret as football instruction was actually something else entirely—a lesson in tactical positioning during a Ghoul hunt. "Maintaining shape" meant not breaking formation. "The opening will come" meant waiting for the enemy to expose itself."Coach, the pitch is too dry," another young man cal
Chapter 409 The Pyramids of Shadows
The safe house was a small, nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Cairo, hidden among a warren of identical buildings that all seemed to blur together. Hazem had been here for three days, living on stale bread and instant coffee, waiting for his contact to deliver the credentials he needed.The walls were thin. He could hear his neighbors arguing in Arabic, a television blaring Egyptian soap operas, children laughing somewhere in the courtyard below. Ordinary life, unfolding around him, oblivious to the danger that lurked in the shadows.His phone buzzed—a secure line, encrypted, routed through three different servers before it reached him. Only one person had this number."Hadi," Hazem said by way of greeting."Commander." Hadi's voice was tired but steady. "I have news. Laith and his team took down a Ghoul at the Askalan Zoo. A big one. It had been feeding for weeks, growing stronger. They handled it."Hazem closed his eyes, a mix of emotions washing over him. Pride, certainly.
Chapter 408 The Beast of Askalan Zoo
The headquarters was eerily quiet. Most of the senior Knights were scattered—Hazem in hiding, Hadi handling legal firestorms, Ali at the hospital with Haneen and the newborn, Marwan working double shifts at the bakery to make ends meet. The underground command center, once alive with the hum of activity, now felt like a tomb.Laith sat alone at the communications desk, his feet propped up on the console, a cup of cold coffee at his elbow. He had been here for hours, waiting for something to happen, anything to break the monotony. His team was on standby, scattered across the city, ready to move at a moment's notice. But the moment hadn't come.Until now.The emergency line buzzed—a priority channel, one reserved for civilians who had been vetted by the Knights. Laith snatched the receiver."Help me, please! It killed him! It killed Youssef!" The voice was a man's, high with terror, barely coherent."Slow down," Laith said, his voice calm but firm. "Who is this? Where are you?""My nam
Chapter 407 New Beginnings
The month that followed the government's inspection was, by any measure, a disaster.Ali had spent countless hours on the phone with lawyers, accountants, and government bureaucrats, trying to keep Askalan Technologies afloat. Every week brought a new crisis—a frozen bank account, a cancelled contract, a supplier who had suddenly decided they could no longer do business with him. The government wasn't arresting him. They weren't raiding his offices again. They were doing something far more insidious: they were strangling him financially."Mr. Ali, your operating license is under review.""Mr. Ali, we need you to provide additional documentation for the past five years of transactions.""Mr. Ali, one of your overseas partners has been flagged for potential connections to unauthorized organizations. We recommend you sever ties immediately."Each notification was a fresh wound. Each requirement was designed to be impossible to meet. They weren't trying to prove he had done something wron
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