LOGIN"Ba-ba! Da-da-da!"Muna kicked her tiny, bare feet straight against the linen of Noah's shirt, her small fingers grabbing a handful of his collar and yanking hard. She let out a loud, wet screech, her blue eyes wide as she pointed her other hand toward the terrace glass."I hear you," Noah laughed, his voice completely soft as he shifted her weight against his hip. He didn't look at a screen, and he didn't check a single system node. He just leaned down, blowing a quick bubble against her fat cheek until she giggled and buried her face in his neck. "You're louder than the wind today."Noah adjusted her grip on his shoulder, his bare feet flat on the cool marble floor as he walked a slow circle near the glass. There was no internal count running in his head, no diagnostic checklist telling him to scan the horizon for an approaching boat. The vast expanse of the Aegean below the cliff was just a flat, silent blue, completely open under the early spring sun."Ma-ma! Da!" Muna yelled agai
Noah sat stiff in his seat, his fingers digging right into the leather armrests. His knuckles were white. His eyes were locked on the small flight monitor on the wall, watching the altitude numbers jump up and down. "The radar screen in the cockpit is completely red," Noah said, his voice flat and thin against the whine of the engines. "The pilot is trying to skirt the edge of the front, but the wind is pushing us too far south." Vance unbuckled his heavy harness, his big body shifting easily against the tilt of the floor as he stood up. He stepped across the narrow aisle, dropping his huge frame straight into the empty seat right next to Noah. He reached out, his large, calloused hand catching Noah’s chin, forcing his head away from the window. "The plane isn't going down," Vance growled, his voice a low, rough rumble. "The pilot has flown this specific route in worse weather than this. Stop tracking the incline." Noah looked into his dark eyes, his breathing short and heavy.
The alarm box on the wall went off like a loud siren, its red bulb spinning fast and throwing bloody streaks across the dark stone ceiling. Noah jumped straight across the library table, his arm knocking a glass of water flat onto the floorboards as he grabbed the shaking phone."It's Geneva," Noah shouted over the noise, his eyes wide.Vance ran into the room from the outside terrace, his heavy boots slamming hard against the floor. He snatched the phone straight out of Noah's hand. "What did the handler text?""The water broke," Noah choked out, his chest moving fast as he grabbed his coat from the chair. "She’s in early labor, Vance. It’s four weeks before the due date. The contractions are already five minutes apart."Vance didn't waste a single second. He threw the phone onto the desk and grabbed Noah by the arm, dragging him toward the back door. "Move. The plane pilot is already on the runway at the private strip. I told him to keep the engines running.""The heavy rain is stil
Glass broke loud all over the floor. A big rock had come loose from the cliff outside and smashed straight through the window of the balcony door. Freezing water and wild wind came rushing into the bedroom, knocking a heavy lamp right off the small table with a loud bang.Noah didn't even move. He stayed completely frozen on the edge of the mattress, his bare feet flat on the cold floor, his knuckles white as his fingers dug into his legs. His chest was moving fast, his eyes wide open in the dark."The house temperature just dropped four degrees," Noah said, his voice completely flat and dead against the noise of the wind.Vance jumped across the wet floor, his big shoulders bunching under a dark shirt as he grabbed a heavy cloth from the closet. He slammed his big body straight against the broken frame, using his weight to block the freezing air before shoving a steel rod into the lock to hold it down."The heat is fine," Vance growled, his voice a rough, low rumble as he wiped the w
The green light on the library terminal did not blink; it just stayed solid, cutting right through the dark shadows of the room. Noah stood over the desk, his fingers hovering half an inch above the keyboard. A single text file was open on the glass screen, sent through the offline routing loop they had hidden in the New York mainframe."Maya initialized the node," Noah said, his voice flat.Vance walked in from the master bedroom, his boots silent on the rug. He had a clean cotton shirt on, his hair pushed back. He didn't look at the screen; he looked straight at Noah's hands. "What did she send?""It’s just an automated system log," Noah said, his eyes tracking the alphanumeric strings cascading down the interface. "But the third sector shows a minor transaction delay in the Frankfurt clearing house. It’s an anomaly in the liquidity protocol. If I run a diagnostic patch through the proxy—""You aren't running anything," Vance cut him off, his low baritone voice a gravelly rumble tha
The rain came down hard on the lower terrace, turning the fresh dirt into thick, red mud that stuck to Noah's boots. He stood under the gray morning sky, his shirt wet through at the shoulders, his fingers digging into the wet ground to clear a clogged drainage pipe."The mud is choking the line again," Noah said, his voice flat as he pulled out a handful of wet gravel.Vance walked down the path from the tool shed, his heavy boots making a loud, wet squelch with every step. He didn't have his jacket on, his bare arms caked in dark dirt, a heavy iron crowbar resting against his shoulder."Leave the pipe alone, Noah," Vance said, stopping at the edge of the ditch. "The water is flowing fine on the other side.""It's not fine, Vance," Noah said, looking up, his face pale and wet from the rain. "If the water blocks here, the topsoil on the lower trench turns to soup. The roots won't hold."Vance dropped the crowbar into the mud with a dull thud. "The roots are fine. You've been digging a







