Julian stepped out of the safe house into the cool night air, the faint hum of the city a distant murmur. As he lit a cigarette, a flicker of movement in the alley caught his eye. He turned sharply, scanning the shadows. Nothing.But the feeling was there, crawling under his skin—a prickle of awareness that refused to fade. Over the past week, it had grown stronger. Fleeting shadows, the rustling of leaves when there was no wind, and subtle glitches in his devices.Inside, Madeline watched him from the window, concern etched into her features. She had noticed the change in him, the way his paranoia seemed to deepen with each passing day.The final straw came that afternoon. A package had arrived, plain and unassuming. Julian opened it cautiously, his movements deliberate. Inside was an empty box, but on the lid’s interior was a single black circle, drawn with meticulous precision.“We’re being watched,” he said, his voice low but steady as he examined the box under UV light. There wer

The engines of the jet roared to life, a sound that reverberated through Julian’s chest as he stood at the base of the boarding stairs. The cold night air whipped around him, carrying the scent of jet fuel and the faint rustle of distant trees. He gripped the handrail, his knuckles white, staring out at the empty airstrip as if expecting her to appear, to stop him. Madeline’s voice echoed in his mind. “Promise me you’ll come back.” He’d wanted to say yes, to reassure her that everything would be fine, but the words had caught in his throat. How could he promise something he wasn’t sure he could keep? The cabin door opened, spilling warm light onto the tarmac. A figure appeared at the top of the stairs—the same contact from the airstrip, their face partially illuminated. They gestured impatiently. “Time’s up, Grey. We leave now, or not at all.” Julian exhaled, his breath misting in the frigid air. With one last glance toward the horizon, he climbed the stairs, each step a heavier

Julian’s boots echoed against the cracked cobblestones of the Istanbul backstreets as he followed Nix. The city’s night air was thick with moisture, the distant hum of traffic a reminder of the urban sprawl that lay just beyond the labyrinth of alleyways. But here, in the shadows, the world felt different—dangerous, unpredictable.Nix moved ahead with a quiet confidence, their pace steady, even as Julian kept his gaze darting between dark corners and hidden doorways. There was an odd sense of calm about Nix, something Julian couldn’t quite place. But that didn’t mean he trusted them.He had questions—too many questions. And now, with each step through the winding alleys, the nagging feeling in the back of his mind only grew stronger.“Tell me again how you managed to infiltrate their network without raising any alarms?” Julian asked, his voice casual but probing. He kept his eyes trained on Nix’s back, watching for any flicker of discomfort or hesitation.Nix glanced over their should

The speedboat rocked gently in the secluded harbor, its engine silent as Julian rummaged through his gear. The horizon glowed faintly with the first hints of dawn, but the urgency in Julian’s movements left no time for admiration. His fingers paused as they brushed against something hard and unfamiliar sewn into the lining of his duffel bag.A shiver of unease ran through him. He unzipped the lining, revealing a sleek black device the size of a cigarette lighter. The faint red LED blinked rhythmically—a tracker.“Damn it,” Julian hissed, his voice sharp in the quiet morning.Crushing the device under his boot, he ground it into the deck until the light sputtered out. He glared at the fragments, anger and unease warring within him. The Black Circle had been following him since Istanbul.But how?Julian’s mind raced as he scanned the boat, checking every inch for more surprises. His instincts told him this wasn’t just a slip-up—it was deliberate. Someone close to him had placed that tra

The Vienna facility was in shambles. Smoke billowed through the corridors, mixing with the sharp tang of burning circuitry. Alarms screamed in a chaotic symphony, but Julian remained calm, crouched behind a row of server racks. His sharp eyes locked on the flickering display of a partially destroyed terminal. Sophia’s voice came through his earpiece, steady but urgent. “I’ve managed to patch into the server backup. Julian, you’re not just dealing with a blackout here. Eclipse is bigger—a total digital reset. It’ll wipe out every financial record, identity, and infrastructure system connected to the grid. Governments, corporations, individual lives—it’s all on the chopping block.” Julian leaned closer, his breath fogging the cracked monitor as he read the data scrolling across the screen. “It’s not just a shutdown,” he muttered. “It’s a controlled rebuild. Whoever controls the reboot will have the power to rewrite the world. A digital dictatorship.” The screen flickered, revealing a