Briggs felt every pair of eyes watching him. Judging him. Waiting to see what he would do. And Briggs hated feeling judged. Especially by a stranger. Especially by an old woman.

The mercenary beneath Silas’s boot whimpered, coughing up blood. "He... he's parked two miles down the access road. He was waiting for the all-clear. He's not coming in."

Silas knocked the man out with a swift kick to the temple. He looked at Beatrice. "I need to go. If Kael realizes his team is dead, he will vanish, and Vance will try again. The local authorities are already on their way; the EMP triggered the silent fail-safes."

"Go," Beatrice commanded. "Bring me the head of the snake, Silas."

Silas vanished into the storm. He didn't take a vehicle; a car engine would alert Kael. He ran through the dense, rain-soaked forest parallel to the access road, his night-vision cutting through the torrential downpour. He moved with the stamina of a marathon runner and the silence of a hunting cat.

Two miles down the road, an unmarked black van was idling under the cover of a massive oak tree. Kael sat in the driver's seat, chewing a cigar, nervously checking his watch. It had been twenty minutes. The team should have called in by now.

Kael cursed, putting the van in gear. The job was blown.

Before his foot could hit the gas pedal, the driver's side window exploded inward.

A massive, gloved hand reached through the shattered glass, grabbed Kael by the throat, and violently hauled him out of the vehicle through the window. Kael hit the wet pavement hard, gasping for air.

He scrambled for the pistol in his waistband, but a heavy boot pinned his hand to the asphalt, crushing his fingers. Kael looked up into the terrifying, emotionless face of Silas.

"Vance," Silas said. It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kael sputtered, spitting blood.

Silas didn't argue. He reached down, grabbed Kael by the collar, and hauled him to his feet, slamming him against the side of the van. "You have thirty seconds to give me everything you have on Elias Vance, or I will break every bone in your body, starting with your knees."

Kael, a hardened criminal, looked into Silas’s eyes and saw no hesitation. He saw absolute, cold-blooded certainty. Kael broke.

"He hired me! He gave me the codes! He said the vault had enough to get him out of the country!" Kael shouted, panicked. "I have the burner phone! The texts, the wire transfer receipts, all of it! It's in my pocket!"

Silas reached into Kael's jacket and retrieved the phone. He scrolled through it quickly, finding the irrefutable evidence tying Vance directly to the attempted assassination and robbery.