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“Insertion team has reached the junction point,” Cal’s voice whispered in her ear. “Turning toward cell block access. You’re doing great, Elena. Keep moving.”

Up a flight of stairs. Another corridor. More guards stationed at intervals, watching her pass with flat, predatory eyes. She didn’t meet their gazes, didn’t acknowledge them. Just followed her escort deeper into the temple.

To level two. Northeast wing. Where Toro waited.

The guard stopped at a heavy wooden door, knocked twice, then pushed it open.

“Your visitor, jefe.”

Elena stepped through, and there he was.

21:58 Hours—Drainage Tunnel

The tunnel was exactly as Elena had described—four feet high, three feet wide, water flowing ankle deep over smooth stone. Brock crawled through the darkness, his night vision showing him Eden’s back three meters ahead, Jade behind him, Reza bringing up the rear.

Stealthy. Quiet. The only sounds were water trickling and their controlled breathing.

“Junction point in twenty meters,” Cal’s voice confirmed. “You should see the yellow paint marker on the left fork.”

Eden held up a fist. They stopped, and Brock watched as she examined the junction. Two passages splitting off, both dark as tombs. Then her hand moved, pointing left, and he saw it—a slash of faded yellow paint on the stone.

It was still there. Elena’s memory had been accurate.

They took the left fork, and the tunnel began to slope upward. The maintenance shaft. The route to level three, where Marguerite was being held in an interior cell block.

“Time check,” Atticus’s voice came through. “You’re at twenty-two hundred hours. Elena just entered Toro’s office.”

Brock’s hands tightened on his weapon, but he kept moving. His job right now was here. Getting this girl out. Trusting Elena to handle her part. The shaft opened into a small chamber—electrical boxes on one wall, ventilation grates overhead.

Eden checked the route, then pointed up. “Level three access,” she whispered. “Nightshade going up. Prophet and Viper, you’re with me. Phantom, hold this position and cover our exit.”

“Copy,” Brock said. He watched Eden, Reza, and Max disappear up through the access panel, moving with a stealthiness that came from years of practice. Then he was alone in the small chamber, listening to water drip and his own heartbeat, while somewhere above him Elena sat across from the man who’d destroyed her.

22:00 Hours—Toro’s Office

Antonio Ramos looked older than his forty years. Dissipation and violence had carved lines into his face, and his eyes held the flat, reptilian emptiness of someone who’d lost the ability to see other humans as real. He sat behind a massive desk of dark wood, expensive and incongruous in the ancient stone room.

When he smiled, Elena’s body remembered. Not his face—she’d never seen his face clearly all those years ago, just shapes in the darkness above her. But his voice. That voice. And when he stood, the way he moved, the smell of his cologne—expensive and cloying—hit her like a fist.

Her body knew. Remembered. The weight of him. His sweat dripping onto her face. His breath. His hands. She’d never known his name. But her body had known him.

The knife in her boot suddenly felt very present. Very necessary.

“Elena.” Her name in his mouth was obscene. “It’s been a long time.”

She didn’t sit. Didn’t speak. Just stood with her hands loose at her sides, meeting his eyes with nothing in her own. She’d learned that from Atticus—how to look at evil and not let it touch you.

“Please, sit.” He gestured to the chair across from him. “We have business to discuss, but there’s no reason to be uncivilized about it.”

She sat, keeping her spine straight. “I have what you asked for. Where’s Marguerite?”

“Direct. I always appreciated that about you.” Toro leaned back in his chair, studying her with a linger that made her want to shower. “You’ve changed. Harder now. Colder. I liked you better before.”

When she was screaming. When she was broken. When he’d had all the power.

“The data,” she said, pulling the flash drive from her purse and setting it on the desk between them. “Everything you asked for. Complete access to the Dynamis network.”

“And how do I know it’s real?”