Empty.
“Shit,” Mateo breathed.“We’re too late.”
They were already gone.
“Clear the building,” Luca said.
They did—fast and methodical.Cold-storage rooms stripped bare except for restraints still bolted to the walls.Chains hanging slack.Scuffed concrete where boots had dragged.Near a floor drain, a single torn shoe lay abandoned, the sole worn thin.
Kol paused in one doorway, eyes narrowing.“They didn’t rush this,” he said quietly.“No panic.No mistakes.”
“No,” Dominic agreed.“This was a scheduled move.”
Mateo crouched near a workstation, fingers flying over the console.“Logs are wiped,” he said.“But not sloppy.Whoever did this knew exactly how much time they had—and exactly what to erase.”
They regrouped near the loading bay, the night air sharp against sweat-slick skin.Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance—too far to matter, too close to linger.
Mateo looked at his tablet then straightened.“Just over an hour ago, they had three vehicles and they made a clean exit.The girls were alive when they moved them.”
That mattered.
“Someone warned them,” Luca said.
No one argued.
Kol’s head tilted slightly again, attention turning inward.“This wasn’t fear,” he said.“This was timing.They knew when we’d come—and how long they had.”
Elias came on the comm.“Report.”
“Route burned,” Luca said.“Secondary node cleared before arrival.Evidence scrubbed.No bodies.”
A pause.Long enough for Elias to weigh the board.
“They’re adapting,” Elias said.
“Yes,” Luca replied.“And they weren’t panicking, worried about the time.They knew we were coming.All that was missing was the fucking welcome mat at the door.”
Another pause.Luca could picture him then—still, unreadable, already turning the next move over in his head.
“Pull back,” Elias ordered.“We don’t chase shadows.Not yet.”
Luca killed the comm.
As they withdrew, Kol lingered, gaze fixed on the empty cages.
Kol swallowed, jaw working as he stared at the empty cages.“This wasn’t random,” he said quietly.“It was ...precise.”
Luca glanced at him.“Meaning what?”
Kol shook his head once, frustration bleeding through his control.“I don’t know yet.I just—” His fingers flexed at his side.“We should have moved faster, got here sooner.If we had...”He broke off, exhaling sharply.“Something really fucked up is going on here.Within the Covenant and this entire situation.I can feel it.We didn’t get there in time, and that really pisses me off.”
They left the building behind, darkness swallowing it whole.
They hadn’t saved anyone tonight.
But somewhere out there, women who had been taken against their will had been moved, and they arrived too late to make a difference.
And next time, Luca intended to make sure they were early.
