WALLER'S POV
Her face twisted into something I couldn't read—grief, rage, disbelief, all crashing together behind trembling eyes. She didn't say a thing. She just turned her head slowly toward me, and the tears that slipped down her cheeks hit harder than any bullet she'd ever fired my way.
"I know," I whispered. "It sounds insane. But my investigation… it points to one thing. Jim Cole—your Jim Cole—is still alive."
Her breath hitching was the only answer I got.
"Look, we didn't start off great—you shooting at me, me dodging for my life—but I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here because you need the truth, and I can help you get it."
For a moment, I thought she might speak. Instead, her eyes hardened. Without warning, she stepped back, turned, and walked out—shoulders shaking, hands clenched, leaving me with more questions than I started with.
I followed, but only made it to the doorway in time to see her collide with someone coming around the corner. The woman steadied Tina before either of them hit the floor.
Serena.
Her eyes flicked from Tina's tear-streaked face to mine—and something sharp and knowing crossed her expression.
Whatever Tina had just learned wasn't going to stay between the two of us anymore. The storm had just found another witness.
Serena's gaze locked with mine for a heartbeat that felt too long, too calculating. She knew something—something big. Tina pulled away from her, wiping her tears, mumbling something I couldn't catch. And just like that, the two of them disappeared into the stairwell, leaving me frozen with the weight of what I'd just unleashed.
Jim Cole.
A name that should belong to the dead.
A legend who vanished without a trace.
A man whose shadow still moved pieces on a board no one else could see.
My investigation had only shown fragments—bank accounts activated in impossible ways, encrypted messages sent from abandoned safehouses, fingerprints that appeared decades after the prints were supposedly archived in a government vault. But nothing… nothing compared to the last photo.
A blurry street cam shot.
A man in a long coat.
Gray at the temples.
Walking like he'd never left.
Jim Cole wasn't just alive.
He was preparing something.
And every path led to the same symbol… the same warning.
The Eclipse.
______
Far beneath the city—below subways, sewers, and forgotten tunnels—an obsidian chamber glowed with a dim, pulsating light. Flames flickered in carved lanterns, casting distorted shadows across a circular stone table.
Five figures sat around it.
The Kings of the Eclipse.
Each from a different part of the world.
Each possessing a power that could level a city block.
Each bound by a secret older than the civilizations above them.
The air trembled as King Vortan, the one whose eyes burned like molten silver, leaned forward.
"New York grows too curious," he said, voice echoing like a shiver through the stone. "The detective stirs again. Greene. And the girl… the daughter of the Ghost Prophet."
A woman draped in crimson silk tapped her fingers on the table. Queen—though they still called her King—Zahara, controller of storms. "And Jim Cole?" she asked. "Does he remain loyal?"
Vortan exhaled—not breath, but a faint swirl of black particles. "He has gone silent. For months."
The chamber grew cold.
Silence meant betrayal.
Silence meant war.
Another King, massive as a mountain and marked with glowing runes, grunted. "Then our timeline moves forward. With or without the Ghost."
Zahara nodded. "Agreed. New York has forgotten fear. We will remind them."
A glowing map of the city sparked to life above the table—Manhattan illuminated like a circuit board. Red points pulsed at key locations: power plants, transportation hubs, communication towers, central command centers.
"The Eclipse falls in three days," Vortan murmured.
"And when it does…" Zahara smiled, slow and merciless.
"We break the city."
A final voice spoke from the shadows—one who had entered without sound.
"No," he said. "We reshape it."
The Kings turned.
A man stepped into the weak light.
Coat long.
Eyes sharp.
Gray at the temples.
Jim Cole.
Alive.
Watching.
Choosing sides no one could predict.
"New York isn't the target," he said quietly.
"It's the beginning."
2 WEEKS EARLIER — WALLER'S POV
After slipping out from under Devon Michael's watchful eyes, I made a choice—no more half measures. I was diving into this case with everything I had left, even if it broke me.
That's when the gaps started revealing themselves.
Places I hadn't looked.
People I hadn't questioned hard enough.
Truths I'd walked right past.
First there was Alexander. Then the bartender who saw too much. Her boss and his silent, twitchy friend. The gang from a separate case that somehow kept circling back to me like vultures. Hitchcock—the cop who knew more than he pretended to. And finally, the Eclipse machinery… technology that shouldn't exist, engineered to tear humanity apart piece by piece.
The more I uncovered, the clearer it became: this case had grown far bigger than me, heavier than anything I was built to carry.
Yet something deeper kept dragging me forward—pulling me toward an ending I wasn't sure I'd survive.
I walked a few blocks before pulling out a phone, one the agency can never track it felt unnecessary but I don't want to take my chance.
Opened up my contacts and dialed Serena's number, I deserted her because I thought I could turn it all around by myself but yet again I need someone to help me with myself.
Her phone started ringing almost instantly, she picked it up faster than I've imagined.
" Waller where are you?" Her voice sounds more calm than usual.
How did she know it was me?.
" How?" " You are the only one who will call me at a moment like this and probably the only one who knows am alive, besides Malik." She answered cutting me off.
I let out a peaceful sigh.
" I need your help, where can we meet?"
There was a brief pause before she finally replied.
" Where are you?"
" Corner of eight and Mercer." I replied.
" Just wait right there Waller, and try not to be seen." The line went dead almost instantly.
She arrived ten minutes after the call which got me wandering if she lived nearby. She came in a blue sedan and was dressed in a crop top hoodie, she walked out looking at me with disgust.
" You look worse than I imagined." Her first words always strikes.
" Nice meeting you." I replied ignoring her.
" So what now, what's the plan?" She asked scanning the environment deep with sharp eyes as always.
" I need to get back in route, we need to find Alexander but first we need someone we can trust that hasn't been compromised." I said calmly.
" Who do you have in mind?"
" Sarah Lee, Mary Lee's older sister." I answered.
" Have you called her?"
" Not yet."
" Why?"
" I need a new phone." I said lastly before we both entered the car and drove off.
After purchasing a new phone I called Sarah informing her about meeting up with her.
Even if she was shocked to here my voice she accepted giving me a location to meet her,
The safehouse.
I and Serena argued if she was going to be trusted or not but it had to happen she's our only option.
I arrived at the safehouse with Serena standing right behind me.
" I hope this goes well." Serena said behind me with a chill voice.
" I have all the faith in her." I replied.
The front door swung open, and Sarah stood framed by the dim lamp behind her, hands planted on her hips, eyes locked on mine with a mix of exhaustion and barely contained anger.
"You're late," she said.
Not hello.
Not I thought you were dead.
Just the truth—sharp, cold, and exactly the way Sarah had always delivered it.
Serena muttered behind me, "This is a bad idea."
I ignored her and stepped forward. "Thanks for agreeing to see us."
Sarah stepped aside without a word. We entered the safehouse—an old, stripped-down apartment with maps pinned to the walls and stacks of files covering the table. Everything smelled like dust, adrenaline, and secrets.
"You didn't call me for small talk," Sarah said, closing the door. "What do you want?"
"Alexander," I answered immediately. "And the bartender."
Sarah's expression shifted just slightly—something flickering behind her calm exterior.
"I knew it," she murmured. "Both of them were involved deeper than you realized."
Serena folded her arms. "Then why don't you start talking?"
Sarah shot her a look, then turned to me instead. "Before anything else, I need to know this—are you being followed?"
"No," I said.
Serena scoffed. "He doesn't know that."
Sarah sighed. "Fine. Then we'll do this the smart way."
She moved to the table, grabbed a stack of papers, and dropped them in front of us. Photos. Reports. Surveillance logs. And two names circled in red: Alexander and Lila Cain.
The bartender.
" Wait I thought her name is Sophia? And isn't Alexander once hospitalized, why don't we just go to the bar and hospital and find them?"
" That's because Alexander had disappeared a week ago and for the bartender you once mentioned, I tracked her, the name Sophia isn't her real name."
Sarah tapped the first photo. "To make this more interesting as I've investigated on my own Alexander didn't disappear. He was extracted."
"By who?" I asked.
"By someone inside the Eclipse program. Someone high enough to make his entire trail vanish in minutes."
Serena stepped closer. "And the bartender?"
Sarah slid the second photo over. Lila Cain A.k.a Sophia staring at the camera from behind her bar, but her eyes… her eyes weren't normal. Dark. Too focused. Almost trained.
"She wasn't just a bartender," Sarah said. "She was Alexander's handler."
I blinked. "Handler? As in—?"
"Agency-trained, Eclipse-aligned, and using that bar as an intel hub. You think you stumbled into her by accident, Waller? She orchestrated every encounter."
Serena cursed under her breath.
"So what's the plan?" I asked.
Sarah straightened, finally showing a spark of the strategist she used to be.
"We find them. Both of them. But not by chasing them. That's what Eclipse expects. We make them come to us."
She spread a map across the table. New York. With three points marked in bright red.
"These locations," she said, "are where Eclipse operatives regroup when one of their assets goes dark."
Serena leaned over the map. "Which one is closest to Alexander?"
"None," Sarah replied. "Alexander's too valuable. He'll be kept off-grid. But Lila—she'll go to one of these places to report the moment she realizes Waller is alive and moving."
I felt a cold rush go down my spine.
"Meaning," I said, "we stake out the locations."
"Exactly," Sarah said. "We wait for her to show. Then we follow her back to wherever they're keeping Alexander."
Serena nodded slowly. "A pressure trap. Simple. Dangerous. But it could work."
Sarah looked at us both, her voice lowering. "But understand this—once we make this move, Eclipse will know we're not guessing anymore. They'll know we're acting. And they'll come for us."
I took a deep breath.
"I'm tired of running."
Serena cracked her knuckles. "Good. Because this is going to be a war."
Sarah handed each of us a burner radio and gestured toward the window.
"Get some rest. We move at dawn."
But as she turned away, I caught something in her expression—something like dread.
And for the first time… I wondered if Sarah was afraid of what we'd find.
Or afraid of what Alexander might reveal.