2024-10-09 21:13:42
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CHAPTER 654
Tedmond’s brows twitched further.The way she eyed his ring put him instantly on edge. His free hand came up on instinct, curling around his left fingers to shield the band as if she were a pickpocket in a crowded bazaar rather than a deep-cover operative.“You’re not going to steal it, are you?” he asked, his voice dropping into a protective, almost accusatory rumble.Lottie froze.She stared at his hand. Then at the silver mask. Her mouth fell open in pure, unfiltered disbelief.“Steal it?” she repeated, her pitch climbing. “I just bypassed a Level Five biometric lock, stood down a tactical squad, and got called a broken toy by a man in a skull mask—and you think I’m angling for your jewelry?”“You were looking at it,” Tedmond said stubbornly, shifting to keep the ring out of her line of sight. “And you said you liked it. In my experience, people only say that right before they take things.”Lottie threw her hands into the air, her hard reddish-brown ponytail whipping behind her.
CHAPTER 653
Tedmond peered at her. When she had pressed that gun against his head, she hadn’t looked anything like an ally, and even if she was one, how could she possibly claim it now?Still… they hadn’t mentioned Albert. There was no reason she should even know that name.And suddenly, it clicked.That was how she’d known who he was the moment the mask came off. He hadn’t questioned it before, but now it seemed painfully obvious. Too obvious.“I’m his mole inside the Gilded Cage,” Lottie hissed, her eyes flicking toward the balcony where the Warden stood.“Why do you think the security logs were so easy to manipulate? Why do you think I was alone in the Conservatory when you arrived? I was clearing the path so you wouldn’t have to fight fifty men.”“She’s lying! She has to be lying!” Hugo whimpered, but no one looked at him.“Check the tablet,” Lottie snapped, pointing at the device clenched in Tedmond’s hand. “Enter the code: 7-Alpha-9-Lottie. It’s the backdoor Albert built into the transpo
CHAPTER 652
One thing Tedmond had known from the moment he arrived was that the people running the Cage were powerful.Individually dangerous. Efficient. The kind who always had contingencies stacked on contingencies. He’d barely subdued Hugo before the woman appeared.Now an entire tactical unit had flooded in behind her.Perfect coordination.Tedmond didn’t wait for the Commander to recover from her embarrassment.He snatched the tablet from the mud, pivoted on his heel, and vanished into the densest wall of tropical foliage just as the first sweep of white light carved through the space where he’d been standing.“He’s in the ferns!” the Commander roared, scrambling to her feet, her voice cracking with fury. “Kill him! Forget the Warden’s orders… just kill him!”The conservatory became a leaden storm. The Enforcers didn’t hesitate. Submachine guns barked in staccato bursts, shredding rare plants into sprays of green pulp and splintered stalks.Marek dropped from the rafters like a falling st
CHAPTER 651
“Huh?” Hugo’s eyes widened in shock.He didn’t understand what Tedmond had just said, nor the position it was about to put him in.Tedmond didn’t give him time to protest.He hauled Hugo upright, his grip on the man’s collar so tight the Adjutant’s feet barely brushed the floor. The red flare light was dying now, sputtering into a deep, sickly maroon that made the art gallery look like a slaughterhouse.“Wait! Please!” Hugo choked, clawing uselessly at Tedmond’s iron wrists. “You can’t… the turrets… they’re programmed for motion! If I go in there, they’ll shred me!”“Then I suggest you move fast,” Tedmond said, his voice as cold as the wind howling through the shattered dome.He retrieved the tablet from the floor and tucked it into the small of his back beneath his tactical vest. He didn’t just need the turrets down; he needed a clear line on the Commander. If Marek was pinned, she’d found high ground or a choke point.With a brutal shove, Tedmond forced Hugo toward the heavy doors
CHAPTER 650
Her lips curled into a wide smirk. Her eyes glinted brightly, confidence radiating from every line of her face.But she hadn’t accounted for Marek’s second move.From the darkness of the ferns, a heavy black object, a piece of the conservatory’s own drainage piping, Marek had ripped free with his bare hands, hurtled through the air.It didn’t hit the Commander.It struck the main junction box mounted on the wall behind her.K-ZAP!A shower of blue sparks erupted, accompanied by the harsh groan of the conservatory’s failing power grid.Amber lights flickered and died.The automated turrets in the cornices gave one final mechanical whir before dropping into "power-save" mode.Total darkness swallowed the room, illuminated only by shafts of pale moonlight cutting through the jagged hole in the ceiling."Now!" Marek’s voice echoed, a ghost’s command from an unexpected direction.Tedmond didn’t wait. He vaulted over the fountain’s lip, running parallel to the Commander, keeping the stone
CHAPTER 649
Outside, the moon was a silver sliver, the wind howling against the reinforced panes.Then Marek’s eyes dropped to the fountain’s base.Water overflowed, slicking the marble beneath the Commander’s high-end tactical boots.Marek reached into a hidden pocket of his crimson cloak and withdrew a small, weighted glass sphere, a flash-bang of a different variety filled with a concentrated, pressurized gas that reacted violently with water.‘Wait for it,’ he told himself. ‘Wait for the boy to make his move.’He saw Tedmond’s posture shift.Saw the way the kid used his voice as a distraction, drawing the woman’s focus into a psychological game.Tedmond was playing the “London consultant” card again, probing for her price.Marek adjusted his grip. He wasn’t worried about the automated turrets the woman had mentioned.He knew where they were… three heat-sensitive units mounted in the cornices. He had already mapped their blind spots.His concern was the Commander’s left hand.The one aimed at
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