Chapter 4 - The Confession in the DarkDamian kicked the walk-in closet door open, the polished wood splintering against the frame.
Inside, tangled in rows of custom Italian wool suits and designer dresses, lay a man in a black tactical jumpsuit. It wasn't Miller. It was a younger operative, bleeding heavily from his shoulder where Bruno’s jaws had torn through his Kevlar vest. The intruder’s face was twisted in agony, his hand desperately clawing at a small detonator switch strapped to his chest rig.
"Don't move!" Damian snarled, bringing the heavy brass bar down across the man's forearm with bone-cracking force. The detonator clattered away across the floor.
Bruno stood over the intruder, one massive paw planted squarely on the man's chest, baring white, razor-sharp teeth inches from his throat. The dog didn't bark; he simply stared down with cold, calculating intelligence, waiting for a single word from his master.
"Who sent you?" Damian demanded, pressing his boot onto the man's uninjured shoulder, pinning him to the carpet. "Aegis Global? The board? Give me a name or I let the dog finish what he started."
The operative coughed, a thin stream of dark blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He looked up at Damian, a twisted, blood-stained smile spreading across his face.
"You're too late, Vance," the man rasped, his voice echoing in the confined closet space. "The asset... the micro SD card... it’s already broadcasting. Every asset, every bank account, every offshore account your family holds has been drained in the last ninety seconds. Your company is bankrupt. Your name is mud. And your daughter... she’s the final encryption key."
Damian’s heart skipped a beat. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the micro SD card. The plastic casing was warm—too warm. A tiny green LED light, invisible in the bright bathroom light, was now pulsing rhythmically beneath the matte black surface.
It was a transmitter.
"Sophie!" Damian yelled over his shoulder, spinning around to re-enter the bathroom. "We need to get out of this house now. The card is a beacon—"
He stopped dead in his tracks.
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The master bathroom was completely empty.
The marble tub was dripping water onto the pristine floor. Bruno’s wet footprints trailed away toward the smashed ventilation shaft. But Sophie and Lily were gone. The heavy titanium shutter on the far side of the hallway had cracked open by exactly two feet, just enough for a human to slip through.
