Chapter 5 5

The air in Marseille was thick with salt and silence. It was the kind of silence that came before storms-tense, loaded, and watching.

Tino Knightly stared through the tinted windows of the black SUV as it rolled into the Vieux-Port district. The marina shimmered with expensive yachts, oblivious to the war brewing beneath the surface. Tourists strolled the boardwalk, snapping photos and sipping espressos, unaware they were walking atop a powder keg.

Beside him, Sandy Rhune adjusted the wire in her earpiece, her jaw clenched. She was no longer the curious journalist who followed a whisper across Europe.

She was hunting now. And she had blood to answer.

Rocca's voice came through the comms. "Perimeter secure. Eyes on the gala. Drazen's list of VIPs just dropped. Everyone from bio-defense directors to UN liaisons. The perfect mix of power and panic."

Sandy glanced at Tino. "And we still don't know how he plans to release it?"

Tino shook his head. "All we know is the agent is airborne, odorless, and fast. Once it's in the air, it won't be stopped. Drazen's not just aiming for chaos-he's aiming for legend."

"Then we make sure this is his final act."

-

The gala was being hosted at Château Brière, a restored fortress overlooking the coast. The perfect stage for elegance-and destruction.

Tino and Sandy arrived as honored guests. Invitations had been intercepted. Their names replaced dignitaries too dead or too missing to object. The doorman barely glanced at their passes, welcoming them into opulence.

The ballroom glowed with crystal chandeliers, live string music, and high-end French cuisine. Everyone wore masks.

Literal ones-elegant silk and gold.

Metaphorical ones-power, wealth, deception.

Sandy scanned the crowd. "Drazen could be anyone here."

Tino nodded. "But he'll want a view of the panic. We find the stage, we find the showrunner."

They split up-Sandy to the upper balcony, Tino through the service corridors.

Upstairs, Sandy passed waitstaff, security, and a few too-friendly dignitaries. She ignored them. Her eyes were on the ventilation systems. If Drazen planned an airborne release, it had to come from above.

She spotted it then.

A sleek silver device embedded into one of the chandeliers.

She cursed under her breath. "Tino, I found it. They've rigged the chandelier itself. Air circulation will release the compound right over the main dance floor."

"Disable it," Tino ordered.

"I don't have the tools."

"I'm on my way."

-

Downstairs, Tino moved fast-but he wasn't alone. A man stepped out of the shadows, blocking his path. Tall. Impeccably dressed. And smiling.

Victor Drazen.

"No more running," Drazen said, voice smooth. "No more riddles."

Tino raised his gun without a word.

Drazen didn't flinch.

"You know, Rafael-oh, pardon me, Tino-I always respected your ruthlessness. But I never quite believed you had the stomach to finish the story."

"I'm writing the last chapter now," Tino growled.

"You should be thanking me," Drazen said, stepping closer. "I freed you. I gave you a purpose. You were just another broken heir to a dying name until I made you bleed."

Tino's hands trembled. "You killed my brother."

"I made you a king."

The first shot echoed through the corridor. Drazen ducked, the bullet shaving past his shoulder. But he was gone before the second.

Tino swore and took off running.

-

Upstairs, Sandy had pried open the chandelier housing with a letter opener and a pocket flashlight. Her hands were slick with sweat as she tried to disconnect the core.

One wrong move and the device would activate early. She breathed deeply. Steady. And then-click. The core dropped into her hand, still intact.

"I've got it," she breathed into her comm. "The device is off-line."

"Good," Rocca's voice replied. "Now get out of there."

But she didn't move. She'd spotted someone. A woman across the hall- tall, statuesque, wearing a red dress.

Evelyn Drazen.

Sandy followed her.

-

In the courtyard below, guests continued to dance, drink, and make deals while death hovered a breath away.

Tino stepped out onto the main balcony, scanning for Sandy.

Then he saw her-chasing Evelyn into the west wing.

"No!" he shouted, sprinting toward her.

-

The west wing was silent.

Sandy moved with purpose, every sense heightened. Evelyn Drazen wasn't running. She was walking-slowly, confidently-like she knew how it would end.

They reached an old drawing room.

Evelyn turned, finally facing her.

"You're braver than your brother," she said. "But not smarter."

Sandy raised the gun Tino had given her. "You used Cole. You murdered him."

"I perfected him," Evelyn replied. "He was the first successful carrier. Did he never tell you that?"

Sandy's hands shook. "You're lying."

"He never told you how the nightmares started? The tremors? The rage?" Evelyn stepped closer. "He wasn't killed. He self-terminated before he lost control. Because deep down... he knew he was a monster."

Sandy's knees nearly buckled.

Tino burst in just as Evelyn reached for her purse. But Sandy didn't wait. She pulled the trigger.

Once.

Twice.

Evelyn staggered backward-shock in her eyes-before collapsing.

Dead.

-

Outside, security scrambled, unaware of what had nearly happened.

Rocca pulled up in an SUV as Tino led Sandy out the side gate.

"You alright?" Rocca asked.

Sandy didn't answer.

She stared at her hands-hands that had just taken a life.

Tino reached over, gently lowering her arms. "You did what had to be done."

She nodded, numb. "Then why does it feel like nothing's changed?"

Tino didn't have an answer.

But as they pulled away from the château, the horizon lit with fire.

An explosion rocked the ground.

The ballroom, the chandelier, the stage of Drazen's demonstration-obliterated in a blast of glass and smoke.

"He triggered the backup," Rocca whispered. "Just in case."

Tino clenched his jaw. "He wanted to erase every trace. Including us."

Sandy closed her eyes. "Then we're out of time."

And as the ashes of Marseille drifted skyward, the war for tomorrow had already begun. The drive from the burning château was silent.

Smoke curled in the distance as emergency sirens pierced the night. From the rear-view mirror, Sandy watched the fiery remnants of the ballroom-the place where history could've been rewritten through death-collapse in on itself.

Evelyn was dead.

The prototype had been deactivated. But Victor Drazen had vanished... And the most damning evidence- the drive Sandy held in her lap- was now their only leverage.

Tino sat rigid beside her, one hand wrapped tight around the grip of his pistol. He hadn't said a word since they left the compound.

She finally broke the silence. "We were seconds away from stopping everything."

Tino's eyes didn't leave the road. "And Drazen was seconds ahead."

Rocca's voice came through the comms. "We've got a problem. Police scanners picked up chatter- Interpol has been tipped off. Someone fed them a doctored version of tonight's attack. They think we bombed the gala."

"Drazen framed us," Sandy whispered.

Tino nodded. "We just became public enemies."

-

They regrouped at a Knightly Syndicate bolt-hole deep in the Marseille underworld-beneath an abandoned winery, now refitted with encrypted servers and emergency supply caches.

As Rocca began wiping data trails, Sandy paced, eyes wild with thought.

"He knew we'd find the chandelier. Evelyn was a decoy. The bomb... it wasn't plan A."

Tino leaned against the wall, watching her.

"You're saying he wanted us to survive?"

She stopped pacing. "I'm saying he wanted us to see it burn."

Rocca cursed from the monitors. "He also dumped our names into Interpol's Red List. If we set foot on a commercial flight, we're ghosted."

Tino rubbed his jaw. "What about extraction through Corsica?"

"No good," Rocca replied. "He locked down the coast. Even port signals are scrambled."

Tino pushed off the wall, walked to Sandy. "We need a new way in."

Sandy looked up. "In where?"

"To Drazen," he said. "We stop playing defense. No more chasing after what he's done-we go where he is."

Rocca raised an eyebrow. "And you just happen to know where he's hiding?"

Tino didn't answer right away.

Then, slowly, he walked to an old chest in the corner of the room. He pulled out a thick file-one he hadn't touched in years.

He tossed it on the table.

A weathered label read:

OPERATION: MORNINGFIRE

Site: The Island of Karstos.

Sandy's breath caught. "I know that name... Cole mentioned it once. Said it was the key to everything."

Tino opened the file. Satellite images. Maps. Top-secret correspondence.

"Karstos is off the grid. Private island in the Adriatic. No records. No borders. Used by multiple governments for shadow R&D over the decades. Two years ago, Drazen bought it. Paid in gold. No paper trail."

Rocca looked stunned. "That place is a myth."

Tino's jaw clenched. "Not anymore. If Drazen has a final lab, it's there."

Sandy's voice was tight. "Then that's where we go."

-

The journey to Karstos wasn't easy. They used a covert boat route from a private marina in Toulon. No lights. No transponder. Just stars above and death below.

Sandy stood at the prow, eyes locked on the dark waters ahead.

Tino joined her, silent.

She finally spoke. "I keep thinking about Evelyn. The look in her eyes when she realized I'd shoot."

"She didn't believe you had it in you," Tino said quietly.

"She was right." Sandy's voice trembled. "I didn't... until I looked at her and thought about Cole. About what she turned him into."

She looked at Tino. "Is that how it starts? This... hunger? To burn the world just to feel something again?"

He met her eyes. "It starts with loss. But it ends with choice."

They held each other's gaze a moment longer before he whispered, "And we're still choosing."

-

By morning, Karstos rose from the sea like a black blade- sharp cliffs, concrete watchtowers, and a hidden fortress nestled inside the stone.

Drazen's citadel.

As the boat docked inside a hidden cove, Sandy's hands curled tighter around her weapon. This wasn't just a mission anymore. It was a reckoning.