Chapter One Hundred and Forty- Three
Markus didn’t rember getting into the car. One mont he was standing in the hollow quiet of the warehouse, the next the engine was screaming under his foot, tires tearing at the road as he shot out into the night. Streetlights blurred into streaks of white and gold, the city bending around his speed. He drove without thinking about laws or limits. Those had never mattered, not once in his life.
Aht’s apartnt stayed fixed in his mind with every mile he put behind him: the sealed gates, the layered access, the quiet certainty that nothing in that building opened unless Aht allowed it to. Without Aht’s car, no one got in.
The thought hit him hard enough to make his grip tighten on the wheel. If Aht wasn’t the one behind the wheel, the place beca a fortress. There were no guards to talk to. No codes to crack. No favors to call in. Just steel, sealed shut, and a silence that did not care who you were.
Then another thought slipped in, sharp and unwelco.
Asli.
Aht had brought her there. Often enough that Markus had noticed. If her car could open those gates, then it ant only one thing, that Aht had trusted her with that much. The idea twisted in his chest. He didn’t know whether to curse it or cling to it.
He needed to think. Slow down and think straight.
He hadn’t seen Aht’s car at the warehouse. That alone had kept him breathing. If the car wasn’t there, then maybe Aht wasn’t either. Maybe he had left. Maybe he had made it out. Maybe they had a peaceful chat and he was sowhere thinking about their next mission.
Hope was a thin, dangerous thing, but Markus held onto it anyway.
The apartnt complex ca into view, all glass and concrete and quiet wealth. He eased off the accelerator as the underground entrance ca into view, his eyes cutting through the shadows on instinct. The space lay empty.
There were no fresh tire marks etched into the concrete, no sign that a car had passed through recently. Only the old tracks remained, worn thin and fading beneath the sweep of cold air, as if even they were trying to disappear.
The quiet pressed in on him, heavier than it should have been. It wasn’t like the usual kind that ant peace, it was the kind that made his instincts itch.
His jaw clenched. He could feel the panic pressing against his ribs now, hot and insistent. He had faced death too many tis to count and never flinched, but this, this was different. This wasn’t his life on the line. It was Aht’s. And the thought of a world without him felt wrong in a way Markus couldn’t explain.
Then mory cut through the chaos and surfaced without a warning. Aht, late one night, slouched against his desk, tired and half-smiling as he spoke about contingencies: It was an override no one else knew about. Like a backdoor for ergencies. A fingerprint reader hidden where only desperation would ever send soone looking. For the day things fell apart. This was that day.
Markus pulled over, heart hamring, and stepped out into the cold night air. He moved along the outer wall, eyes scanning, and fingers brushing over smooth surfaces until they found it. It was barely visible, tucked into the seam of tal near the service entrance.
His hand shook as he pressed his thumb down.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the lock disengaged with a soft, chanical sigh.
He was inside before the door had fully opened.
The apartnt t him with a silence that pressed in from every side, too clean, too still, echoing the emptiness he had just left behind at the warehouse. Markus moved through it quickly, cutting from space to space, eyes sweeping corners and doorways, searching for any sign that life had passed through recently. The living area offered nothing. The bedroom was untouched. The study stood exactly as he knew Aht would leave it, orderly and vacant, mocking him with its calmness.
There was no blood. No signs of struggle. No Aht.
The last thread of hope snapped.
He stood there for a mont, the chest rising too fast, the weight of the night finally settling into his bones. Calling in n wasn’t an option. Neither was sending feelers into the city. Moves like that never stayed quiet. They spread. They reached the wrong ears. And when that happened, whole empires shifted. The years of balance could collapse overnight.
He turned sharply, pacing once, twice, running a hand through his hair as his thoughts chased each other into dead ends. If Aht wasn’t here, then he wasn’t anywhere Markus could reach without tearing sothing apart.
His phone buzzed.
The sound was so sudden that it made him flinch. He fumbled for it, fingers slick, pulling it from his pocket too fast. The phone slipped, struck the floor, and skidded across the polished surface.
"Fuck," he muttered, dropping to retrieve it.
The screen was still lit when he picked it up.
Maila.
Of course, it was Maila.
She was an old fling. An old comfort. One of those won who never fully left your orbit no matter how hard you pretended otherwise. He had called her earlier without explaining much, only asking her to look into sothing for him. The street feeds. He wanted her to check all the caras. Anything that might trace Aht’s movent without making noise.
He answered before it could ring again.
Her voice ca through low and quick, already knowing ti wasn’t on their side. "I found sothing."
His grip tightened. "Talk."
"I checked and there is footage," she said, with a voice that Markus knew she was planning to seduce him but this wasn’t the ti for that. "The traffic cams near the industrial stretch. Aht’s car passed through."
A flicker of relief sparked in him, though brief, and dangerous.
"But," she continued, and Markus felt his chest tighten, "it wasn’t him driving."
The relief died instantly.
"The windows were up," she said, anticipating his question, "but you don’t need to see a face to know. The way the car took corners. The bad speed driving. The hesitation at the lights he never hesitates at. That wasn’t Aht. He cared about his car more than anything and wouldn’t drive rcilessly even when he needed to."
Markus closed his eyes slowly.
"Where did it go?" he asked.
There was a pause on the line. She was not hesitating. She was calculating everything.
"Away from the warehouses," she said. "Past the last checkpoint. After that, the feeds go dark."
His jaw clenched.
He ended the call without ceremony, slipping the phone back into his pocket as he turned toward the door. The apartnt remained silent behind him, pristine and empty, offering no answers and no rcy.
Aht never allowed anyone to drive his car. Why would anyone drive it then? The questions were killing him and he needed to find him before he went mad.
There was only one person left to face. He wasn’t scared to face her, he was scared to find out what she did to him.
Markus turned back toward the door, already knowing what he had to do, even as dread curled low in his gut.
Asli.
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