The silence in the grand foyer was heavier than the cold marble floor beneath the little girl’s raw, bleeding knees.

Alexander slowly leveled his weapon at the Senator’s head. "You sold out your own country, Harrison. And you sent your daughter to torture my child."

"Torture?" The Senator laughed softly, a terrifyingly cold sound. "Victoria was looking for the security keys to the Vance Global defense network. Your late wife was smart, Alexander. Evelyn was the chief architect of the Pentagon's new quantum firewall. Before she 'had her accident', she locked the backdoors and stored the master encryption key on a physical drive."

The Senator stepped closer, completely unbothered by the gun pointed at him.

"Do you know how much foreign nations are willing to pay for that key, Alexander? Ten billion dollars. Enough to buy a presidency. Enough to rewrite history. Victoria was supposed to find it silently. But she got impatient. She thought breaking your daughter’s spirit would force the girl to reveal where Evelyn hid it."

"She’s six years old!" Alexander roared, his finger tightening on the trigger.

"She’s an obstacle!" Senator Cole snapped, his polite facade shattering into pure venom. "Just like her mother was! Now, lower your weapon. My men have surrounded this entire city block. Your daughter is currently fleeing into an ambush at Sector 9. You have thirty seconds to give me the drive, or I order my snipers to execute her on the street."

Alexander’s heart hammered against his ribs. Sector 9 was a trap.

Suddenly, Alexander’s phone buzzed in his pocket. A text message vibrated against his hip. He knew his phone was linked to Marcus’s tactical feed.

He didn't need to look at it. He knew what Marcus was signaling.

"You made one mistake, Harrison," Alexander said, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly calm pitch.

"Oh? And what’s that?"