The smoking ruins of the Phoenix Consortium’s underground facility sprawled behind them. The night sky was eerily silent, broken only by the distant wail of sirens.Malcolm lay on the grass, his body aching, smoke curling from the scorched fabric of his jacket. His ears rang, and his vision blurred as he stared at the burning wreckage.He did it.The virus was stopped. The world wasn’t ending.But Eleanor was gone.Tessa knelt beside him, her hands pressing against his chest, searching for wounds. “Malcolm—stay with me.”He coughed, forcing a grin. “You crying over me?”She punched his arm—gently. “Shut up.”Roman and Zeke stood guard, weapons drawn, scanning the area for survivors. Carter’s voice crackled through their earpieces. “Holy hell, you guys are alive?”Zeke smirked. “You sound disappointed.”Carter sighed. “I’d hug you if I wasn’t continents away.”Roman’s face was grim. “This isn’t over.”Tessa wiped sweat from her brow. “Eleanor’s still out there.”Malcolm’s jaw tightened

The air was thick with the weight of unspoken words as the team made their way back to the rendezvous point. It was an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Zurich, a place they had used before. But now, it felt different. The walls, once a comforting barrier, now seemed oppressive. The echoes of their footsteps rang in the silence as the exhaustion of the mission settled into every joint, every muscle. Malcolm felt it too—his body moving on autopilot, guided by instinct more than anything else.Roman, Zeke, and Tessa fell into step behind him, each of them lost in their thoughts. They all knew the same truth—they had won the battle, but the war was far from over. They were facing enemies they couldn’t yet name, enemies who had resources beyond anything they had imagined. Worse, they were facing the ghosts of their pasts, the ones who had a stake in seeing them fail.Once inside the warehouse, the team split up. Roman went to the secure room to process the data, Zeke set up communic

The warehouse felt colder now, more distant, as the team stood in silence, processing Elektra’s unexpected appearance and her cryptic offer. The air was thick with tension, and the moonlight streaming through the cracked windows seemed to amplify the weight of the decisions they were about to make. Every instinct in Malcolm’s gut screamed that they were walking into a trap, but the alternative—doing nothing—was worse. Hesperos was out there, moving faster than they anticipated, and every passing hour brought them closer to a disaster they could not prevent.“Alright, here’s the plan,” Malcolm said, his voice cutting through the silence. “We follow Elektra’s lead—for now. But we do it on our terms. We stay vigilant, keep our eyes open. If she’s playing us, we’ll be ready.”Roman’s hand tightened around the rifle he was holding, his fingers twitching as if he couldn’t stop himself from reaching for the next fight. “And if she’s leading us straight into a trap?”“Then we fight our way ou

The room was alive with the sound of chaos. The air was thick with dust and the distant sound of sirens echoing through the night. The entire building trembled under the weight of the explosions, the walls groaning as if they too were protesting the violence. But none of it mattered. Malcolm’s pulse hammered in his ears, drowning out everything else. They had barely escaped the last wave of gunfire, but now, there was no time to catch their breath.“Move! We don’t have much time!” he shouted, his voice barely audible over the deafening noise. He grabbed Tessa by the arm, pulling her into the relative safety of a small alcove just as another blast sent debris flying across the hallway.Roman and Zeke were already ahead, clearing the way as Elektra followed closely behind. She was silent, her eyes darting around, calculating every movement. Malcolm didn’t trust her. Not fully. But right now, he couldn’t afford to worry about that. If what she said was true, then Hesperos was only one st

The air was thick with dust and the acrid smell of burning debris. The lights had failed, plunging the entire tunnel system into a suffocating darkness. Every breath felt like it was cutting through a fog of panic and dread. It was as if the walls themselves were closing in on them, pushing them into the dark maw of the unknown.Malcolm could hear the panicked breathing of his team, the scraping of boots against the concrete floor, the distant echo of rocks shifting above their heads. The explosion had rocked the tunnel so violently that the ceiling now groaned ominously, as if it too was struggling to keep them trapped.“Stay close,” Malcolm barked, his voice calm, but edged with urgency. His hand moved to his side, feeling the comforting weight of his gun. “We don’t know how much time we have before this entire place comes down on top of us.”Behind him, Tessa, Zeke, and Roman pressed forward, their faces grim in the flickering emergency glow of their flashlight beams. Elektra, who