The sky over the Draxon skyline bled into gold as morning came, but to Elias, it looked more like a warning than a beginning.
He stood by the tall windows of a private location far from his usual penthouse, surrounded by silence. No security detail. No flashing alerts. Just the soft ticking of a grandfather clock he didn't recognize. This was the house his aunt had brought him to. A safehouse he never knew existed. His aunt her real name still withheld had disappeared before dawn, leaving him with the sealed folder and one haunting instruction:
"Don't try to take down your enemies. Become the storm they fear."
He had read the contents of the folder twice. By the third time, his fingers trembled.
Inside were records birth certificates, erased Draxon board documents, transcripts of black-budget meetings. All proof that Elias wasn't the only Thorne heir once considered for succession. There had been another. A cousin. Quietly removed from the family tree for "psychological instability."
That cousin? Now a sitting executive at one of Draxon's shell subsidiaries.
The same subsidiary Elias had unknowingly authorized a security budget for just two months ago.
"Snake pit," Elias muttered.
A knock on the door broke his train of thought.
It was Jude, breathless, sweat glistening on his forehead.
"We have a problem," Jude said.
"We have seventeen," Elias replied calmly. "But go on."
"They moved up the date of the executive roundtable. It's no longer next month it's this. Valerie announced it an hour ago. She's claiming you're 'emotionally compromised' and unable to vote on fiscal affairs."
Elias's jaw tensed. "She's trying to trigger the clause."
"Exactly. If they get board consensus "
"They can vote me into permanent advisory exile," Elias finished, his voice a whisper. "Which means they'll put someone in charge of the war chest."
Jude nodded grimly.
Elias turned to the window, then back to the folder on the table. The choice was clear now.
He picked up his phone and called Lewis.
"Activate OSIRIS Protocol. We're opening the vault."
"You sure?" Lewis asked on the other end. "You told me to burn that plan."
"I'm changing the rules now," Elias said. "I want the Black Accounts rerouted. I want the Safe Board to meet without the main executives. Get me eyes inside every executive's private space every office, every plane hangar, every offshore yacht."
"Done," Lewis replied, pausing. "And Magritte?"
"She's in Oslo, but she's walking into a trap. Pull her out."
"She's not going to like that."
"She doesn't have to," Elias said. "Tell her I said the phrase: 'Crimson Directive: Clockwork Valley.' She'll know what it means."
Lewis gave a low whistle. "That's Cold War protocol. Are we there already?"
"No," Elias said. "We passed 'there' three days ago."
At Draxon Tower – Executive Wing, Valerie Dexter sat at the head of the roundtable, flanked by Landon Ross and Madeline Scarth, two of the oldest allies of the Thorne family though "ally" had long since lost its meaning. The room hummed with controlled tension.
"Elias has not appeared for three public events," Valerie began, voice poised. "His recent behavioral patterns suggest either mental deterioration or strategic withdrawal. Both disqualify him from financial control under bylaw 77-C."
Madeline nodded. "We support the motion to invoke conditional oversight."
"And the temporary custodian?" Landon asked.
Valerie smiled coolly. "We nominate Vice-Chair Scarth."
Just as the gavel neared the wood, the lights cut.
Then a screen descended from the ceiling unauthorized.
SECURE OSIRIS OVERRIDE IN PLACE. INITIATING D-RANK CONSTITUTIONAL ADDRESS.
The room froze.
A voice, cold and sharp, echoed:
"To those who move in shadows, I bring a torch."
Elias Thorne's face appeared on-screen. Calm. Composed. *Alive and watching*.
"As of now, Draxon's Safe Board has been activated. Any motion made in my absence is nullified by emergency executive powers. And while you plot my exile know this: I have all your ledgers. Offshore accounts. Hidden assets. Even your burner lines."
Gasps.
"If you vote against me today, your names will surface tomorrow. Alongside tax fraud, insider trades, and two private military donations that never saw congressional clearance."
Landon stood. "You don't have that kind of access."
Elias smiled.
"I built* that access."
The screen blinked out.
Silence.
Then Valerie whispered, "He's not bluffing. He's *not* the same Elias we knew."
"No," Madeline said, voice hushed. "This one remembers everything."
Oslo – Hours Later
Magritte was already gone from the auction house when the gunfire started.
Lewis's team had extracted her through a back channel using a diplomatic pass. She didn't speak a word until they reached the extraction vehicle. Once inside, she turned to the agent beside her.
"You're working for Elias now?"
"Yes."
"Then tell him this," she said coldly. "Tell him I'm ready. But if he lied about my brother, I'll bury him myself."
The agent paused, surprised.
"You have a brother?"
"I had a brother," she corrected. "They told me he died at sea. But Elias knows that's not true."
And with that, she turned away watching the streets disappear behind her, preparing for war.