LOGINPOV: FelixStrack was found at the first location, not the second. Dante had weighted the second more heavily based on recent activity in the area, and I had split the team evenly between both sites rather than committing disproportionately to either, which was the correct decision and also the decision that meant I was not present when Strack was located, which meant I received the confirmation via Marco's voice on the phone rather than in person.I took the call in the car and said bring him to the safe house on the north side and don't damage him beyond what the situation requires and make sure he understands that cooperation is the only version of tonight that ends with him still breathing.Marco said understood and ended the call. I sat in the back of the car with the city moving past the windows and thought about Emil Strack, about the kind of man who takes a research background built on legitimate science and applies it to the specific problem of ending lives in ways that l
POV: FelixDr. Voss agreed to meet me at seven in the morning. Not at his home, I hadn't asked for that and he hadn't offered it, understanding without discussion that what we were about to talk about required a location that belonged to neither of us, a neutral space with no history attached to it. We met at a coffee shop on the western side of the city, the kind of place that opened early for the people who needed somewhere to be before the world caught up with them. He was already there when I arrived, sitting at a corner table with a cup of something untouched in front of him.He has that look on his face, the look of a man who had rehearsed this conversation many times over six years and was now discovering that rehearsal had not adequately prepared him for the reality of it. He was in his late sixties, slight, with the precise hands of someone who had spent a career doing careful things with them. He looked at me when I sat down with an expression that contained equal parts re
POV: Felix I finally reopened the case file of Elsa, living through the pain again just to uncover the secret behind her sudden death that seems to be the beginning of my troubling record of deaths and missing persons. I have never counted her as a victim before, I don’t even speak about her because it hurts to think about it, it opens up old wounds, bringing back memories that I’ve long overcome. I have to force myself to face that pain and uncover the truth.I had not opened this file in six years. Not because it didn’t exist, I had kept it the same way I kept everything, like a man obsessed with keeping records. I have always believed information was the only honest currency, but some files are not about information. Some files are about the specific weight of a loss that you have decided, with the quiet determination of survival, not to revisit until you can afford to.It’s funny because I could not afford to now, either. But I opened it anyway. I’m doing this for Lina, and fo
POV: Felix The warehouse address Ryan had given me was forty minutes away. I made it in twenty-five. I stood inside with a flashlight and looked at what Martin had left behind, and I understood that Ryan had told me the truth.There were things in that warehouse that should not have existed. Things that connected too many places, too many times, too many losses. I walked through slowly, touching nothing, reading everything, and the picture that assembled itself in my mind was one I had never considered, not once in all the years I had spent searching for enemies outside my own family.So close…So fucking close…The enemy had been so close, the enemy had stood at my wife’s funeral, he had a face I knew, had also known my entire life, and had used that familiarity as the finest cover in the world, because no one looks closely at what has always been there. I stood in the center of that warehouse for a long time, alone, the flashlight cutting a single pale circle in the dark, and
POV: Felix He knew what my word was worth in this city, everyone did. That was the advantage of reputation, it worked even when you were exhausted and soaked and sitting in a moving car on a dark highway feeling like the worst version of yourself. Now more than ever, I’m proud of the man I have become.“What do you need?” came his firm, but weak response. “Turn the car around, convince Martin it’s over. Lead him back here and bring Selina back to me.” I ordered. There was a pause on his end, a long one. I could hear him breathing, could hear something underneath that. There were voices in the background, muffled voices, the interior of a moving vehicle. I could imagine the confusion in his mind right now. Too bad he has no choice but to give me what I want. I waited patiently, letting him feel the heat of my threat without saying one word. Then after a few minutes,“Alright. Alright, I’ll do it. Just give me a few minutes. And don’t hurt my family, touch them and the deal is off
POV: FelixThe symbol belonged to a safe house network that had operated briefly in this city about eight years ago, run by a man who had since retired to somewhere quiet. A man who, if I recalled correctly, had been friendly with Martin during a period when Martin was younger and angrier and building connections I had assumed were insignificant. Now I know that nothing Martin did was without purpose. I heard my own thought from earlier tonight echo back at me and felt the cold clarity of a man who had just realized how far behind he truly was.This wasn’t recent, Martin hadn’t built this in the weeks since Selina ran. He had built it over years, quietly, carefully, while I was grieving and distracted and telling myself I still had my finger on the pulse of everything. He had been preparing for this. Which meant on some level, at some point, he had decided this moment was coming. That eventually something would happen, that eventually Selina would happen, and he would need a system
POV: Serena I kept replaying the incident in my head, trying to recall when and how I’d implicated myself without my knowledge. I’d caught her s couple of times, and our conversation is always on the same page always. It’s starts with me being shocked at her actions and ends with her offering me a
Selina.I felt shivers run down my spine as I trailed behind Chloe to her office. She entered before me, slamming the door after her loudly, causing me to tremble.'What was going on, why was I having a bad feeling about this?' I pondered, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm myself down.I f
POV: Selina“What’s going on, why is everyone so quiet, what happened here?” I asked the interns as I reviewed their new projects. They shrugged their shoulders at me, refusing to say anything to me. Some of them even rolled their eyes at me, eyeing me as if I did something wrong. I felt angry, I did
POV: Selina “H… H… How did you know I fell in the bathroom, I never said that to anyone, Martin. How did you know?” I asked in shock, my hands shaking in fear as I realized that he was also wearing a blue jean and boots like my attacker. I looked around me and almost all the guys around me had the s







