Page 59 of Controlled Drift
Victor breached.
The door slammed inward, and the room exploded into sight.
An office—wide, immaculate, all dark wood and glass and power.A desk large enough to anchor a company.Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the grounds they’d just cut through.
Eight men stood spread across the room, weapons already up.
Five rifles swung instantly toward Black Tide.
Three never moved.
Those three were trained on a single point.
A chair.
Metal.Bolted to the floor.
A young man sat cuffed to it, wrists bound behind him, shoulders squared despite the blood drying at his hairline.His face was bruised, split lip swelling, one eye already darkening—but he was upright.Awake.Defiant.
Marcus.
Ethan made a sound that wasn’t a word.
Niko stepped half a pace forward without realizing it, weapon coming up, every muscle in his body locking into lethal stillness.
Eight guns.
Three aimed at Marcus’s head.
Five aimed at them.
The room vibrated with the tension of it—one wrong breath away from massacre.
Behind the desk, Gregory Rhodes stood with his hands resting lightly on the polished surface, silver hair immaculate, suit unwrinkled, expression almost ...pleased.
“Well,” Gregory said mildly, as if they’d arrived early to a meeting.“You did make good time.”
Niko centered his sights on Gregory’s chest and didn’t blink.
The game was over.
And everyone in the room knew it.
****
The office was tooperfect.
That was the first thing that struck Ethan as the door blew inward and the room locked into a standoff that felt like it could shatter glass if anyone breathed wrong.
Dark wood paneled the walls, polished to a mirror sheen.A massive desk dominated the center of the room, positioned not for work but for authority—raised slightly on a platform, so anyone who stood before it would have to look up.Floor-to-ceiling windows framed the night beyond, the estate grounds lit like a private city below.
Eight men stood spread across the space.
Five rifles swung toward Black Tide, muzzles steady, fingers tight on triggers.
Three guns never moved at all.
Those three were trained on the chair.
