The safehouse in Marrakesh was old stone and silence.
Claire pressed her back against the cool wall, feeling the shape of the past breathing down her neck. She had changed her hair—again—and wore clothes meant to blend into alleyways, not boardrooms. But beneath the scarf and shadows, she was still Claire Armand.
The woman who once loved Alexander Voss.
The woman who helped build his empire.
The woman he left to burn.
It had taken her three years to crawl out of the ashes. And now they were all going to feel what it was like to suffocate.
She turned to the screen in front of her. It was split: half filled with news of Halcyon's stock surge after Alex's latest acquisition, the other half showing still frames from an encrypted satellite feed—someone had tapped Halcyon Tower's private server.
Not someone.
Him.
She didn't say his name. Saying it gave him shape. Gave him power.
But she remembered the day he first touched her world. It was before Voss. Before she was a strategist with steel in her smile. Back when she was just an analyst with too much ambition and a talent for seeing patterns no one else could. He had approached her with a question about war economies—and left her with an offer: loyalty or irrelevance.
She chose loyalty.
For a while.
Until she saw what he really was.
Claire closed the laptop and stood. The sun outside was dying in red and gold. Her contact would arrive soon, someone from inside Mina's inner circle. She didn't trust him, but she didn't need to. Trust wasn't part of the equation anymore.
She reached beneath the bed and pulled out a steel briefcase. Inside was a single file—labeled Project Thanatos.
Halcyon's first black file.
The one even Alex had buried.
She hadn't touched it since Amalfi. Since the day she left him with a lie and a heartbeat.
A knock sounded. Three taps. Then one.
She opened the door.
A boy stood there. Young. Nervous. Holding a burner phone.
"She told me to give you this," he said, avoiding her eyes.
Claire took it and powered it on.
One message flashed across the screen:
"He's watching. Move now. Voss isn't the threat. You are."
She stared at the screen until the message deleted itself.
Then she stepped outside.
The war wasn't coming.
It had already started.
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