Lahat ng Kabanata ng Howl for Justice : Kabanata 181 - Kabanata 190

I kill the lights and let the rain speak for me. The only illumination left is the band of halogen from my monitor and the occasional spasm of lightning over the river. My office is a ship adrift, glass walls flexing with every gust, the city outside dissolving into grey static. It’s long past midni

“Thanks,” I say, then gesture him inside. “But I was just leaving.” Lucas ignores the invitation and enters anyway, moving with that predator’s grace that always gets him underestimated. He scans the desk, the perfectly aligned files, the empty space where my laptop should be. He notices everything

The secure suite is three floors beneath the city, built into the bones of a parking garage that’s never been full in the history of its existence. Access is by biometric lock, every surface surveilled and air-gapped, a paranoia project that cost more than my law school tuition and was worth every d

Time loses meaning. The tremors become convulsions, each one wringing a cry from my throat. I try to keep quiet, to preserve some shred of dignity, but the sound is animal and helpless. I’m aware of the comm, aware of Lucas’s voice counting down—twenty, fifteen, ten—but it’s all background to the ri

The cage is perfect. I pace the perimeter on all fours, claws clicking a Morse code into the steel plates. I scratch at the base of the glass, not to escape, but to leave a mark. Ownership is an animal principle, and this is my territory, at least for the night. The drapes are tight; no light leaks