THE GOLDEN CARD WAS JUST THE BEGINNING OF A GAME I NEVER WANTED TO PLAY

The wail of converging sirens deafened the underground garage as Marcus Sterling vanished into the shadows, clutching the encrypted flash drive like a lifeline. Julian lunged forward to chase him, but a heavy hand grabbed the shoulder of his ruined tuxedo, dragging him back inside the van.

It was Clara. Her face was locked in absolute focus, her eyes darting toward the driver's compartment.

"Don't waste your energy on Marcus," Clara said urgently, sliding past the unconscious form of David Vance into the front seat. "He just handed us the victory without realizing it."

Julian scrambled into the passenger seat, slamming the door shut just as the first police cruiser skidded into the garage, its tires screaming against the concrete. "What are you talking about? He has the flash drive with all the evidence!"

"He has the decoy drive," Clara replied, shifting the armored van into reverse with a violent jerk of the gear stick. "The real encryption key is biological, Julian. It requires a retinal scan linked to the federal database—a database that Marcus just unlocked for us by using that exact drive."

She slammed her foot down on the gas pedal. The heavy van lurched backward, smashing directly into the front bumper of the leading police cruiser with a sickening crunch of metal and shattering glass. The cruiser’s airbags deployed instantly, blinding the officers inside. Clara wrenched the wheel, burning rubber as she accelerated the van straight toward the garage exit barrier.

The wooden arm snapped like a toothpick as the massive vehicle burst out into the rainy Manhattan night, throwing up sheets of water from the slick asphalt.

Julian gripped the dashboard, his heart hammering against his ribs as he watched the police lights recede in the side mirror. "Where are we going?"

"To the only place Marcus thinks he's safe," Clara said, her voice ice-cold. "The federal reserve annex on Liberty Street."

The drive through the financial district was a ghost town. The rain had turned into a torrential downpour, blurring the towering skyscrapers into dark, looming monoliths. Within twelve minutes, Clara killed the headlights and eased the armored van into a subterranean loading dock beneath an imposing stone building flanked by massive Corinthian columns.

The loading bay doors were wide open, flickering under sickly yellow fluorescent lights. Parked right in the center of the bay was Marcus Sterling’s sleek black sedan, its engine still ticking as it cooled down.

Clara parked the van diagonally, blocking the exit entirely. She cut the engine, plunging them into silence save for the heavy drumbeat of rain echoing from the entrance above.

"Stay here," Clara whispered, reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out a heavy, suppressed pistol Julian didn't even know she possessed.

"Clara, wait—" Julian started, but she had already slipped out the door into the gloom.

Julian scrambled out the passenger side, following her cautious footsteps across the damp concrete. They crept around a stack of empty industrial crates, peering into the open trunk of Marcus’s sedan.

Marcus wasn't there. But lying on the trunk floorboards, drenched in rainwater and glowing faintly with a green LED light, was the flash drive he had stolen. Beside it was a pool of fresh, dark blood that slowly trickled toward the drain.

Julian stepped closer, his breath catching in his throat. He reached out to pick up the drive, but before his fingers brushed the plastic casing, a loud, metallic clatter echoed from the maintenance staircase twenty feet away.