LOGINNikolai's Pov
The bullet had gone into my left side, below the ribs. I knew the location precisely because I could feel the exact point of entry every time I moved or breathed.
The medical kit in the vehicle was basic. Rem's driver applied pressure while I stayed on comms and ran the operation from the back seat.
"Report," I said into the phone.
"Ace is inside the restaurant," Rem said. "Do
Nikolai's PovI had fought Ivan once, years ago, in a sparring session that had gone too far between two brothers testing exactly how much each could take. I had never imagined I would one day be fighting Ace with the same controlled brutality.His fists drove at me with a precision that had none of his usual instinct in it. Only mechanical execution of something programmed beneath his skin."Ace. Stop."He did not stop. His eyes were flat. Distant. The person I loved was trapped somewhere behind a face that kept moving toward me with lethal intent."Ivan, get back. I have him.""You do not have him." Ivan circled wide. His jaw was already swollen from the first hit. "Nobody has him right now."Ace came at me again, faster than before. I caught his wrist before the strike landed. I twisted hard enough that anyone else
Ivan's PovThe screen went dark. Ace's body seemed to lock in place. Caught between whatever instruction had been embedded and the will fighting against it from somewhere underneath."Ace." Nikolai's voice was quiet. "Look at me. Just me."Ace's eyes found Nikolai's face. For a long moment it seemed like the worst of it had passed. His shoulders dropped slightly. His breathing slowed.Then his expression went flat again. All at once. Like a switch had been thrown somewhere deep inside him."Ace."He turned toward me. The punch landed before I had time to brace for it. His fist connected with my jaw hard enough to send me backward into the wall. The impact drove the breath from my lungs, the room tilted. I forced myself back upright."Ace, stop." Nikolai moved to intercept him.Ace turned on
Ace's PovThe walls had started breathing somewhere around the third hour. A slow expansion and contraction. I knew it was not real, i could not stop watching anyway."Nikolai. The walls.""I see them too." His voice came from somewhere close. His hand was steady against my arm. Steady felt like the wrong word for something that kept dissolving at the edges every time I tried to focus on it."You do not see them. You are lying to make me feel less insane.""I am not lying." Ivan spoke from my other side. "I am telling you they are not breathing. Your eyes are telling you something, your brain has decided to believe it."Rem had arrived forty minutes ago. His equipment was spread across the small table in whatever room we had retreated to. His face carried the specific tightness of someone working against a clock he did not fully understand.
Nikolai's PovI crossed the room before the syringe was even fully empty. My hands closed around her wrist. The damage was already done by the time I forced her away from him.Ace stumbled backward. His hand went to his neck. His face shifted into something pale and unfocused that had not been there a second ago."What did you give him." My voice came out as something close to a roar."Something new." She was completely unbothered. She stepped back toward her chair. "Untested on humans, technically. I had it prepared as a contingency. In case the antidote conversation went exactly the way it just went.""You poisoned him again." Ivan had moved to Ace's other side. Both of us held him upright as his legs began to fail."I did not poison him. This is something different. I genuinely do not know what it will do to him. That is precisely what makes
Ace's PovI stayed kneeling because standing too quickly would have broken whatever fragile cover I had managed to build in the six hours since I arrived."Let me explain." I faced Nikolai. "Before either of you reacts to what you are seeing.""Explain it standing up."I stood slowly. Her hand slid off my head as I rose. The room held its breath, all four of us in some configuration of tension that had no easy resolution."I am not betraying you. I needed her to believe I was. Long enough to get the antidote, long enough to learn what she actually wants."She laughed quietly from her chair. "He is good. I will give him that. He has been performing loyalty to me for six hours. His conviction almost fooled me as well.""Almost.""Almost." She nodded. "Which is why we are at this particular moment instead o
Ivan's PovI came back to consciousness in a holding cell. I had no memory of how I had gotten there. My face throbbed where someone had clearly worked it over while I was unconscious. The first coherent thought I had was that I needed to find Nikolai. Whoever had taken me might decide I had outlived my usefulness.The cell door was not as secure as whoever built it had intended. I had it open within twenty minutes. I used nothing but the frame's weak hinge point. The same trick I had used to free Nikolai from a different room months ago.I moved through the building fast. I took down the two guards I encountered. I did not give either of them time to raise an alarm. I made it to the surface before anyone realized I was already gone.Rem answered on the first ring when I called from a stolen phone."Ivan." Rem's voice had gone sharp with relief. "Where are you.""I do not know the exact address. I need extraction. I need it fast.""Nikolai is awake. He has been frantic since he found
Nikolai's PovThe imposter was handled in four minutes. Rem identified the substitution point from exterior camera footage. We had the person secured in the lower level within the hour. The questioning was efficient. It yielded immediate results.
Nikolai's PovThere was silence for a while. I finally spoke up."A verdict. You are both looking at me like you have already decided something and you are waiting for me to confirm it. Like the pattern of solo meetings has already been judg
Ivan's PovThe Syndicate's minor ally operated out of a commercial printing facility on the east side.He was a logistics coordinator named Pryce who had been managing document forgery for the organization for four years. The kind of p
Nikolai's PovI did not sleep after Ace told us about the plant.Two years. Someone inside the close circle for two years. I ran the list through my head starting from the most recent addition and working backward and when I reached the two







