Chapter 80: Setting

The tires of the heavy black SUV threw up high sheets of muddy water as the investigator swerved sharply off the main airfield exit lane, hitting the concrete highway that led toward the central district of Geneva. Inside the cabin, the only light came from the green glow of the GPS interface on the dashboard and the occasional flash of streetlamps reflecting off the rain-slicked side windows.Lucien leaned forward from the rear seat, his hand gripping the back of the driver's headrest as his green eyes locked onto the investigator’s profile. "How many men did the Senator deploy to the central district?""Four that I flagged at the border checkpoint, plus a local handler who knows the transit grid," the investigator said, his hands steady on the steering wheel as he pushed the vehicle past a line of slow-moving freight trucks. "They aren't local police, Lucien. These are private security details from Marcus Hunt’s campaign ledger. They don't have to follow the local precinct protoco

Chapter 81: Slow

The mattress in Eli’s corner of the Bee Hive dorm creaked softly as Lucien shifted his weight, his long legs tangled in the worn cotton sheets that had kicked loose from the footboard. The afternoon sun through the high, narrow window hit the wooden floorboards, casting a warm, lazy grid of light across the small room, but neither of them was looking at the clock.Lucien had his uniform jacket thrown over the back of the single desk chair, his tie discarded somewhere near the laundry bin. He lay on his side, his face completely stripped of that cold, unreadable mask he wore the second he stepped outside the heavy wooden entrance door of the block. His green eyes looked soft, loose, and entirely focused on the boy resting right in front of him."You're staring again," Eli murmured, his voice thick with a quiet, comfortable sleepiness. He didn't move to sit up, his head remaining deeply embedded in the center of his pillow as he looked back at Lucien."I’m allowed to look," Lucien said

Chapter 82: Terminal

The line went completely dead for a second, the static on the other end of the phone hissing softly into Eli’s ear like the sound of dry leaves scraping against concrete. He kept his shoulder pressed against the wall of the Bee Hive dorm, his fingers tightening around the cold plastic casing of the device until his knuckles turned a sharp, bloodless white. "Mom?" he repeated, his voice dropping into a tighter, harder register. He looked down at Lucien, who was still resting his head against Eli’s chest, his breathing slow and even, completely oblivious to the sudden shift in the room. "Eli," a voice said on the other end, but it wasn’t his mother’s. It was flat, formal, and entirely devoid of any rhythm that belonged to their small house in the southern district. It sounded like the administrative proctors from the main block, or the corporate secretaries who handled the housing logs. "This is the regional precinct supervisor for the district hospital. We need you to identify a cle

Chapter 83: Hangar

The private jet cut through the clouds, shaking violently for three long seconds as the landing gear dropped with a heavy, mechanical clank beneath the floorboards. The pilot’s voice crackled once over the cabin intercom, short and flat, announcing their descent into the private airfield on the outskirts of Geneva.Eli didn't look out the window. His fingers were still hooked into the strap of his duffel bag, his knuckles slightly white as he watched the digital altimeter on the dashboard drop rapidly toward zero. The cold sweat from his nightmare had dried against his neck, leaving his skin feeling tight and cold under the collar of his t-shirt.Lucien sat perfectly straight in the adjacent seat, his long fingers quickly buttoning his dark uniform jacket before he reached down to pull the heavy box of 2021 registers closer to his boots. The soft, loose expression he had worn right after Eli woke up was completely gone, replaced by that rigid, freezing mask he used whenever he had to

Chapter 84:

The blue sedan slipped into the subterranean parking deck beneath the Rue du Rhône, its wet tires squealing softly against the smooth, painted concrete floor. Lucien drove all the way down to the lowest level, bypassing the brightly lit rows near the elevator banks until he found an unlit bay tucked behind a massive concrete support column. He killed the engine, but left the auxiliary power running so the dashboard screen didn't lose its connection to Cassian’s terminal."We stay split," Lucien said, shifting his weight to look back at the rear seat. "Cassian, you and Noah monitor the local precinct frequencies from here. If the building’s private security detail triggers a manual override on the vaults, I want to know before the central alarm hits the floor.""The encryption is holding," Cassian replied, his fingers flying across his laptop keys as the blue lines of the financial block’s layout pulsed on his screen. "But the biometric keys they’re using at the front desk are linke

Chapter 85: Saint Aurelius

The side alley behind the Rue du Rhône financial pavilion was tight, shadowed by the concrete overhang of the main building and smelling heavily of wet stone and old iron. Rain dripped from the high drainage pipes in a steady, rhythmic slap against the asphalt.Lucien led the way toward the rear of the loading dock, his boots making no sound as he stopped in front of a heavy, rectangular iron grate set directly into the concrete foundation. The bars were thick, rusted red at the edges, and secured to the frame by four massive industrial bolts that had been sealed with thick grease to prevent water damage."This is the secondary intake," Lucien said, his voice dropping below the steady rumble of the building's central heating exhaust above them. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a compact, adjustable steel wrench he had taken from the airfield locker. "The blueprint Cassian pulled shows this shaft drops six feet before it intersects with the main drainage line for the vau