Us.
“He built this to punish success,”I say.
“Yes,” she replies. “And to force you to split.”
I look at the map.
He’s wrong about that too.
“Priority?” Aaron asks.
I don’t hesitate. “Red One.”
“That’s the most populated zone,” Miles adds. “Transit hub. Midday traffic.”
“Which makes it the loudest,” I say. “And the fastest way to stop the rest.”
The helicopter shudders as we change heading again.
Inside, medics work fast and quiet. Ethan is stable. Lance is conscious but fading, fingers still curled like he’s holding onto something invisible.
Jonah sits strapped in, pale but upright, eyes sharp despite the blood and bruises.
He’s already tracking.
“Red One is bait,” Jonah says.
“Yes,” I agree. “And Malenkov expects us to bite hard and blind.”
Jonah nods slowly. “So we bite smart.”
Exactly.
“Lena,” I say, “can you isolate the trigger authority?”
“I’m working it,” she answers. “Black Crown uses a distributed command structure. No single kill switch.”
“Then we take the head,” I say. “Find me the coordinator.”
A beat.
Then: “Got him.”
A new marker lights up—mobile, fast-moving, skirting the edge of the Red One perimeter.
“Courier?” Miles asks.
“Operator,” Lena says. “He’s carrying the confirmation codes.”
“Change of plan,” I say immediately.
Aaron looks at me. “You’re diverting again?”
“I’m collapsing the structure,” I answer. “We stop Red One by killing the signal—not the crowd.”
The helicopter dips lower.
“Set me down here,” I say.
