MasukISLA'S POV
Hunt Capital parking garage. 2:34 PM.
The air down here is stagnant, smelling of tire rubber and exhaust fumes that never quite vent.
A black sedan tails us through the gate. It doesn't accelerate, doesn't try to pass. It just slides into a spot three spaces away and kills the engine.
Maria
ISLA'S POV8:30 AM. The penthouse.The lights don’t just flicker; they stutter. A jagged, electrical seizure that cuts the room into strobe-lit frames. Once. Twice.Then they stabilize, but the quality of the light has changed. Thinner. Weaker.Gabriel looks up from his laptop, his eyes narrowing. "Did you feel that?""I felt it."I pull up the Smart Grid interface on my own screen. The data isn't flowing; it’s hemorrhaging. The power consumption graph shows a spike so vertical it looks like a glitch."The building is drawing power," I say, my fingers flying over the keys. "It's redirecting the load. Pulling from the perimeter and dumping it som
ISLA'S POVHunt Capital parking garage. 2:34 PM.The air down here is stagnant, smelling of tire rubber and exhaust fumes that never quite vent.A black sedan tails us through the gate. It doesn't accelerate, doesn't try to pass. It just slides into a spot three spaces away and kills the engine.Maria Santos is already unbuckling, her hand dropping to her waist. "Stay in the vehicle."Gabriel’s hand grips the door handle, knuckles white. "If that's Hale's people—""Wait."Maria approaches the sedan. She moves with that specific, predatory grace of someone expecting a fight. She taps the driver’s window.
ISLA'S POVSouth Bronx. 12:47 PM.The coordinates lead us to a dead end of chain-link fencing topped with rusted barbed wire that looks like it hasn't cut anything but the wind for twenty years. A sign hangs crooked, the metal groaning against its bolts: Morrison Industrial Site - No Trespassing.Beyond the mesh, concrete buildings decay in silence. I see corroded iron beams jutting out like ribs, shattered windows that look like missing teeth, and stagnant water pooling in the cracked asphalt, shimmering with an oil slick rainbow.It’s the silence of a grave.Gabriel's SUV parks fifty feet from the entrance, the engine ticking as it cools. Maria Santos exits first, her tactical team flowing out behind her like water. Four o
ISLA'S POVMorning light hits the guest suite of the forty-second-floor penthouse, but the warmth doesn't make it feel like home. It feels like waking up at the office.I listen to the muffled grind of the city below—the sirens and the low-frequency hum of a building breathing recycled air. The king-sized bed is an island of luxury, and the view of Manhattan is a sprawling empire, but I am neither the fiancée nor the wife anymore. I am definitely not the variable.I am the Hired Gun, and this room is simply my workspace.Checking my phone before I even sit up, I watch the little wheel spin on my banking app. It feels like a mockery when the numbers finally resolve: Available Balance: $14.27.
ISLA'S POV4:00 AM. Hunt Capital building. Sub-basement.The air down here is recycled and heavy, smelling of concrete dust and high-voltage ozone.The server room entrance is a wall of bodies. Utility technicians in coveralls. Two police officers looking bored but alert. Three lawyers in suits that cost enough to feed a family for a year.And a court order authorizing infrastructure shutdown taped to the steel door like a eviction notice.Gabriel and I approach with Maria Santos and our legal team. My heels strike the concrete floor, a sharp, rhythmic warning.One of Hale's lawyers steps forward. "Mr. Hunt. Ms. Bennett. We have authorization to access the utility infrastructure. You need to vacate the
ISLA'S POVMy Astoria studio. 11:03 AM.I’m packing one bag. It’s pathetic how easily my entire life fits inside it.Three changes of clothes. Toiletries. My father's Rolex, heavy with the weight of unspent value. The partnership photo of our fathers, the edges soft from handling.Gabriel waits by the door. He takes up too much space in the tiny room, his silence pressing against the peeling paint."Ready?" he asks."No." I zip the bag, the sound harsh in the quiet. "But we don't have a choice."I sling the strap over my shoulder and lock the apartment door.The eight-hundred-dollar-a-month exile is
ISLA'S POVThe taxi pulls up to the curb outside Hunt Capital.Fifth Avenue is a canyon of gray steel, but the building looms like a monolith of glass. Forty-two floors of power that I technically control, even if I feel like an imposter in the backseat.I hand the driver a twenty-dollar bill. It’s
ISLA'S POVThe steel door closes behind me with a heavy, final click.Cell 7 is a cage of painted cinderblock and stale air. Ten feet by twelve, with a metal bench bolted to the wall and a fluorescent light that buzzes like a dying fly overhead.Gabriel Hunt sits on the bench. His suit is expensive
ISLA'S POVFederal Building. Downtown Manhattan.The interrogation room is a white box designed to erase time. A metal table bolted to the floor, two chairs, and a camera in the corner with a red eye that never blinks.I’ve been processed. My fingers are stained with black ink from the prints, my f
ISLA'S POVMarcus’s thumb hovers over the ventilator power button, the plastic looking smooth and lethal under his skin."Five. Four. Three—""Stop."Gabriel’s voice cuts from the doorway, not loud, but absolute. It hits the room like a pressure drop. Marcus pauses, his smile tight like skin stretc







