CHAPTER 1: THE WEIGHT OF THE FLOOR The concrete beneath Miller’s knees was cold, the kind of deep, institutional chill that seeped straight through the fabric of his OCP trousers and bit into the bone. Above him, the fluorescent tubes of the off-hours gym hummed a steady, maddening B-flat. The scent of old sweat, floor…
CHAPTER 1: THE TARIFF OF SILENCE The cold, salt-heavy air of the Atlantic basin always tasted like rust when the sun hit the tarmac. The gray aluminum cuffs of the forearm crutches bit through the wool sleeve of her navy blue dress uniform, digging into the tender scar tissue just below her elbows. Every forward…
CHAPTER 1: THE FRICTION OF EXPOSURE The heat did not merely sit on the ridge; it pressed against the skin like a dull blade. Elena pulled her cheek away from the carbon-fiber cheek weld of the rifle. The movement was slow, deliberate, a practiced theft of inches that kept her silhouette flat against the calcified…