เข้าสู่ระบบThe garden behind the Devereaux complex was designed to deceive.
At first glance, it looked harmless. The garden stretches wide into manicured grass, low stone paths warmed by the sun, a canopy of old trees filtering light into something gentle and almost domestic. Birds nested freely here, unafraid of the perimeter walls hidden behind hedges and ivy.
It was a place meant to feel safe and Nicholas thought it was magical.
He ran through the grass with delighted giggles, hi
Dominic turned back to Michael immediately.“She took August?” He demanded intently and Michael nodded. “And, your father f8cking let her go? He didn’t even try to stopped her?!”Michael folded his arms.“I don’t think she gave him much choice.”That somehow made Dominic even angrier.Vincent quietly muttered, “She’s becoming more like Alessandro every day.”Dominic shot him such a murderous glare that Vincent immediately looked elsewhere.Michael stepped closer.“They’re not unprotected.” He informed.Dominic looked at him flatly.“Not helping, Devereaux!”“The generals sent reinforcements when they came to fetch them.”“Still not helping.” Dominic snapped.Michael exhaled heavily.“Dom.” He sighed heavily. “Althea figured something out before any of us did.”That stopped Dominic because he knew it was true.Althea had seen the pattern first and Nicholas helped expose it further.Now, the Axis Gate existed because she refused to stop looking deeper.Dominic’s jaw tightened painfully.
Night had settled heavily over the outer routes when Dominic finally saw Michael’s vehicle approaching from the eastern road.The convoy had stopped temporarily inside one of Alessandro’s abandoned relay compounds hidden beneath the old industrial district.A forgotten place made of concrete walls, rusting steel and with only minimal lighting.Exactly the kind of location Alessandro favored.Invisible unless someone already knew where to look.Dominic stood near the edge of the compound when Michael stepped out of the vehicle, Enrico following behind him together with two-armed men from Seraphina’s side.The moment Dominic saw Michael’s face, he knew something shifted.Sebastian noticed it too.“What happened?” The older man asked firmly.Michael exhaled slowly and walked directly toward Dominic.“We found the archive routes.” He answered instead.Dominic nodded once immediately.“Useful?”“Yes.” Michael responded and then paused for a while, his face showing that he’s debating with h
Althea barely heard August cursing beside her, because she is now seeing and understanding of something horrifying.“The Axis Gate wasn’t simply transportation.” She stated quietly. She gripped her fists tightly at the realization. “It’s engineered into a psychological movement control.”Nicholas’ instinctive understanding became far more terrifying.Velasquez watched Althea carefully now.“You see it now.” He remarked gently.She nodded faintly.“Yes.” She answered stiffly. “It’s alive.”The generals remained silent because that was the correct word.The Axis Gate adapted.Redirected.Controlled flow through pressure systems.Salcedo pointed toward Alessandro’s network.“Alessandro had gotten his hands on one part of the system years ago.” He explained and then pointed to another one. “And after studying and understanding the structure, he buried it deeper.”Reyes’ expression hardened.“Alessandro never wanted the Axis Gate active again.” He scoffed lightly. “The ba$tard thinks that
“Luca needs the Axis Gate.”The room fell silent after Reyes’ final words. The statement settled over the old prayer hall like something ancient waking beneath the earth.Althea stood unmoving beside the table, her gaze fixed on the convergence point spread across the maps while the implications slowly deepened inside her mind.Beside her, August remained unusually quiet for once, his expression shows that he understood that this had just become something far beyond mafia territory.It’s no longer about turf or retaliation.Or legacy.This was infrastructure.Control.Power hidden beneath decades of secrecy.Reyes slowly lowered himself into one of the wooden chairs near the table while Salcedo rolled another map open beside the first.An older map.Yellowed at the edges.Hand-marked.Military coded.The moment Althea saw it, her stomach tightened because the familiarity of it is undeniable. The map contained same movement lines, same pressure corridors and convergence point that Nich
The decision moved quickly after Althea and August went out of the library and proceeded to the medical wing to talk with Helena.But there was no time left for hesitation anymore.Althea found herself standing inside one of Helena’s secured communication rooms build within the medical wing together with August. The room itself looked nothing like the war room upstairs.This room is patterned from the one in her island where calls are being made to secure an operation schedule.No maps spread across tables.No weapons.No visible strategy.Only quiet.Old telephones.Handwritten ledgers of names that carried enough weight to move armies without ever appearing in public records.Helena stood near the desk, already dressed for surgery again, dark circles visible beneath her eyes despite her usual composure.One of the surgical teams waited outside for her.The patient couldn’t wait.Neither could the war.“You’re sure about this?” Helena asked quietly.Althea nodded once.“We don’t have
Althea stared at the maps for several long seconds after Nicholas’ explanation. Her pulse continues to pound hard against her ribs, the realization settling deeper and deeper with every breath she took.It’s not a stronghold or headquarters. She thought intently, frowning. Not even a weapons route! An infrastructure of movement and control.Dominic’s father had hidden the center of both networks behind layers of conflict and misdirection so thoroughly that even her husband’s people only saw fragments of it.And Luca had been moving toward it this entire time.Nicholas shifted slightly in her arms.“Mama?” He called out with curiosity and concern.The softness in his voice snapped her out of the spiral immediately.Althea looked down at the little boy whose mind had just solved something seasoned men had been circling around for years.And all she could feel was a protective, overwhelming and terrifying love.Her expression softened completely as she pulled him closer and kissed his f
Dominic smelled blood before he saw it.Not the sharp, metallic tang of fresh violence. What he smelled was older, darker, soaked into fabric and skin.Hospital antiseptic clung to it, trying and failing to erase what had already happened.Althea was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking out the w
Althea arrived at the Valtieri estate after dawn.The car that picked her up rolled through the gates as the sky shifted from gray to pale gold, the light catching on stone and iron without warmth. Morning should have felt like relief but exhaustion is clearly overtaking her body.The operation Luc
The breach began quietly.There were no alarms screaming or any dramatic storming of gates. It was a single, almost imperceptible lapse. One door that remained unlocked half a second longer than protocol allowed, a camera feed that lagged not enough to trip automated alerts but enough to create sha
The next morning, Aurelio summoned Althea again, this time after Dominic had already left for the office in just an hour.The summon came with impeccable timing and calculated politeness. A knock delivered by a servant who would not meet her eyes. A message that was phrased as a courtesy, framed li







