LOGINThe convoy carrying Althea cut through the highway long after Dominic’s team disappeared into the night.Rain had started somewhere beyond the mountains and roads started to get slick and dark. The direction almost empty except for occasional checkpoints Helena’s operators cleared ahead of them.Inside the armored vehicle, silence pressed heavily against the windows.Not the peaceful silence but the kind that came before blood, uncertainty and waiting.Althea sat near the center of the vehicle with the patient file open across her lap while Helena reviewed scans projected through the portable system beside her.Neurovascular trauma.Massive cranial injury.Multiple arterial compromise.Possible brain swelling already progressing.And beneath every clinical detail is time that is running out quickly.“He’s young.” Helena murmured quietly while enlarging another scan.Althea’s eyes scanned the imaging automatically. “Shearing near the temporal lobe.” She only murmured back and then slid
Michael stepped forward afterward and tossed another communication device onto the table.“My men are moving too.”Sebastian looked up.“You called them already?”“Yes. They’re fifteen minutes away.” Michael answered and folded his arms tightly. “Luca already hit Blackstone once. We’re not going to allow him to get a second chance.”Between Helena’s operators, August’s men, Michael’s reinforcements, Blackstone’s guards, and Seraphina’s loyalists, the estate had effectively transformed into a fortress.Good. Dominic thought as he no longer trusted coincidence.Althea entered the lower hall again moments later already dressed for deployment toward the surgical site. She wore a dark tactical jacket over medical scrubs with her hair tied back tightly.A gun is holstered beneath the coat Dominic forced her to wear.The sight alone nearly broke something inside him emotionally.She looked terrifyingly capable and heartbreakingly vulnerable at the same time.Her eyes immediately found him be
Blackstone transformed into controlled chaos by nightfall.Vehicles had started to line up at the lower courtyard while weapons were distributed quietly through the armory.Communication frequencies rotated every fifteen minutes and hidden tactical routes opened beneath the estate while guards repositioned along the outer walls with sharper urgency than before.This time, Dominic wasn’t merely retaliating.He was advancing toward the Axis Gate itself.The weight of that settled over everyone differently.Some became quieter while others became sharper, more aggressive and more focused.Dominic became terrifyingly calm as he stood near the armory table fastening the holster beneath his coat while Sebastian reviewed final movement routes beside him.Enzo meanwhile looked deeply offended by the amount of equipment being loaded into the convoy.“We’re carrying f8cking enough weapons to invade a small country.” He commented darkly.Vincent barely looked up from his rifle.“We might.”“That
Hours passed quickly afterward when Helena’s secure phone rang suddenly sharply across the room.The sound alone shifted the atmosphere instantly. Because Helena never received calls directly unless something serious happened.She answered immediately and only listened.Her expression slowly changed, which Althea immediately noticed.“What happened?” She asked.Helena remained silent for several seconds longer before finally lowering the phone.“There’s been an attack.”The room stilled instantly.Helena looked directly at Althea.“A government convoy.” She informed carefully. “Mass casualty.”Althea’s stomach tightened immediately.“One survivor.” Helena continued quietly. “Severe cranial trauma.”Michael frowned.“And?”Helena’s gaze never left Althea.“The procedure requires neurovascular reconstruction.”Silence.Then Dominic immediately understood.“No.”Helena folded her arms tightly.“She’s the only surgeon capable of performing it safely within the timeframe.”Dominic’s expres
The decision was finally made before dawn as Dominic no longer wants to wait.No more circling around the Axis Gate while Luca continued tightening pressure around every known route.They would move toward the Core and they intend to reach it first.The war room felt suffocatingly tense as Dominic stood at the head of the table while maps and route overlays covered nearly every available surface.The hidden bypass Nicholas uncovered remained pinned at the center beside Alessandro’s fragmented pathways.What once looked impossible now looked reachable despite it being dangerous.Sebastian leaned heavily against the table.“We move before Luca fully stabilizes his outer routes.”Vincent nodded once. “We’ve been getting updates from our contacts.” He commented seriously. “He’s still reorganizing after the Blackstone attack.”Michael folded his arms tightly.“Which means this is our only opening.”Enzo looked deeply offended by the lack of sleep.“I miss normal criminal activity.” He said
Althea looked at her son.Nicholas had instinctively identified the pressure funneling structure surrounding the Core.The Gate intentionally forced movement inward.But somewhere inside, there had to be a bypass route.Nico pointed suddenly toward a rough sketch near the edge of the page.“You go around here instead, Mama.”Althea’s breath caught.Her son had just drawn something dangerously close to one of the fragmented movement corridors Alessandro buried decades ago even without ever seeing it.She hid her reaction instantly, thanking her years of surgical composure.But internally, shock crashed violently through her.Nicholas looked worried suddenly.“Is it wrong, Mama?” He asked.Althea immediately shook her head.“No.” Her voice came softer than intended. “It’s not wrong. I say, it’s very smart.”Nicholas brightened instantly.Then immediately frowned again at the paper.“But I don’t know where this connects.” He told her heavily.Althea slowly reached for the drawing, studyi
Dominic finally went back to the war room and the atmosphere immediately shifted with his presence.Enzo had already pulled more data from Luca’s system, projections cascading across the screens. Layers within layers, encryption wrapped around intent like armor.Michael stood close, tracking moveme
“Dominic!” his mother shrieked over the phone the moment he stepped outside the hall, heading towards the elevator. “We saw her on TV—she’s alive?!”“How the f8ck is she alive?!”“Bring her back with you! NOW!”Dom ended the call, turning it off in anger.He stepped inside the elevator, his eyes bl
Dominic staggered back a step.Good thing Enzo was behind, who immediately steadied him. His bodyguard placed a firm grip on Dominic's shoulder to correct his bearing.His knees buckled under the weight of the shock. Because there, just a few feet away from him, standing beneath the white-hot light
The bracelet lay on his palm like a stain he could not scrub from his soul.Dominic had not slept well for a long while. His eyes tired, jaw locked, posture rigid with the kind of tension a man carried only when something inside him was splintering.Althea was gone.It was his fault.Or so the voic







