KNIGHT: define alive
ARROW: conscious & not perforated
KNIGHT: then yeah. Lark too.
Three dots.
ARROW: good. Dean’s here.
My stomach tightens.
We don’t loop Dean Maddox into the casual “we found a troll” cases. If he’s on this early, it’s not for fun.
I accept the incoming call.
The screen pulls up everyone online. Like one giant Zoom call. Gage in his apartment. Arrow and Ozzy and Riverside. Dean and a few other ex-military team members at the Maddox Security headquarters.
“Morning, sunshine,” Gage says. “Nice bedhead.”
“Nice face,” I shoot back automatically.
Arrow’s gaze flicks over my shoulder, clocking the rumpled sheets behind me, the second pillow, the displaced blanket.
His eyebrows climb.
“What happened there?” he asks.
“Focus,” I snap, more sharply than necessary.
Dean’s mouth twitches like he wants to smile but is too professional to commit.
“We can multitask,” Ozzy says mildly. “Apocalypse and feelings. It’s called range.”
I drag a hand through my hair. “Tell me you have something on Helios.”
The joking drains out of Arrow’s face. Dean straightens a fraction.
“We’ve got more than ‘something,’” Dean says. “We’ve got a name, a front, and a pattern.”
Adrenaline spikes.
“Hit me,” I say.
Dean flips a file toward the camera; the screen fills with a dossier.
Photo.
Dark suit, darker eyes, expensive watch. Smug.
Name stamped underneath:VIKTOR LUKA.
“Luka,” Ozzy supplies when my brain whirs. “Underground clearinghouse. Gun-running, cyber-brokering, little side business in contract hits. Likes staying one layer removed. He runs a network of middlemen who run networks of operators who run networks of idiots. You’ve tangled up some of his lower branches without knowing it.”
Pieces start to slot in.
“VANTAGE,” I say slowly. “Mask. Then Mask plus Asset. All tagged by the same vendor ID. ALFA07.”
Dean nods once. “We traced ALFA07’s wallets upstream. Wasn’t easy. He’s using a rolling series of mixers. But money always leaves a scent. It comes together here—” he taps the screen just off frame “—shell corporations, burner accounts, and then real-world holdings.”
