Elias Thorne POV
The car's engine screamed as Maya stepped on the gas. I looked out the back window and saw the mountain clinic disappear in a giant ball of orange fire. The ground shook so hard that I could feel it through the seat of the car. The nurse who had cared for me for a whole year was still inside. My heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant, cold hand. I wanted to tell Maya to stop. I wanted to go back and help. But I knew it was too late. The General's men the "Hounds" did not leave survivors.
"They're coming!" Maya yelled, her hands shaking on the steering wheel. She pointed at the sky.
I looked up through the glass. A black helicopter was chasing us. It looked like a giant, angry bug. I saw a man leaning out the side with a gun. Rat-tat-tat-tat! Bullets hit the road behind us, kicking up dust and rocks.
"Get down!" I barked. I grabbed Maya's shoulder and pushed her lower. I didn't have a gun yet. I didn't have armor. All I had was a body that was still healing and a mind that knew how to survive.
"I can't drive if I can't see, Silas!" she screamed.
"My name is Elias now," I reminded her, my voice low and steady despite the chaos. "Drive fast. Don't look back."
Maya swerved the car into a tunnel. The dark walls blurred past us. For a second, the helicopter couldn't see us. I looked at Maya. She was young, with purple hair and big glasses that were slipping down her nose. She was a great hacker, but she wasn't a soldier. She was scared. I had to be the one to stay calm.
"We need to disappear," I said.
"I have a place," she panted. "A basement in the city. No one knows about it. Not even Sterling."
We drove for hours. Every time I saw a black car or heard a loud noise, my hand went to my belt where a knife should be. I was officially a "traitor" to the world, and every police officer and soldier would be looking for me. It was a strange feeling. I had spent my whole life being the hero. Now, I was the monster in the news.
Finally, we reached a hidden garage in a part of the city that looked old and tired. Maya led me down a flight of stairs into a room filled with computer screens and glowing lights. It smelled like old paper and electricity.
"Welcome to the Nest," Maya said, finally letting out a long breath. She sat down in a big chair and started typing so fast her fingers looked like a blur.
I didn't sit down. I found a piece of paper and a red pen on a desk. My hand felt stiff, but I forced my fingers to grip the pen. I needed to see their names. I needed to make it real. This was my systematic revenge.
I drew a line down the middle of the paper. At the top, I wrote: THE LEDGER OF BLOOD.
I wrote the first name in big, angry letters: GENERAL MARCUS STERLING. He was the man I had trusted like a father. He was the one who had ordered the bombs to drop on my team. I put a circle around his name. He was the main target.
Then I wrote the names of the junior officers who were on the helicopters that night. Major Halloway. Captain Drax. Sergeant Miller. These were the men who pulled the triggers while I watched my brothers die.
"Silas... I mean, Elias," Maya said. Her voice sounded strange. "You need to see this."
I walked over to her screens. She had opened the secret files from the hard drive we had found in the forest the one my team died for.
"I thought Sterling betrayed you just to get power," Maya said, her eyes wide behind her glasses. "I thought he just wanted to be a hero in the news. But it's bigger than him."
She clicked a button, and a map of the world appeared. There were red dots everywhere. Each dot was a place where a war was happening.
"Look at the dates," she whispered.
I looked. The wars weren't just happening by accident. They were being started on purpose. A company was selling guns to both sides. They were making billions of dollars by making sure the world stayed at war.
"The General didn't sell you out for a promotion," Maya said. "He sold you out because you found proof of The Syndicate."
I felt a chill go down my spine. A "global arms syndicate". It was a group of powerful people politicians, businessmen, and generals who worked together to keep the world fighting so they could stay rich. Sterling wasn't the boss. He was just a worker for someone much more dangerous.
"This means the betrayal goes higher than the General," I said, my voice sounding like gravel.
"A lot higher," Maya agreed. She pulled up a photo of a man I had seen on TV many times. He was a billionaire who gave a lot of money to schools and hospitals. Everyone thought he was a good man. But in the secret files, his name was at the top of the list.
I went back to my paper. My hand was shaking now, but not because I was tired. I was realizing that my war was not just against one man. I was fighting a whole system. I added the billionaire's name to my list.
"Each person on this list is going to pay," I told Maya. "One by one, they will disappear. And I will leave a Black Raven feather behind so they know who came for them".
I looked at my face in the reflection of a dark computer screen. The silver scars looked like a map of the pain I had been through. I didn't look like a Major anymore. I looked like a ghost that had come back from the grave to haunt the living.
"What's the plan?" Maya asked.
"We start at the bottom," I said. "I need a job. I need to get close to these people. I heard a company called Aegis provides security for the elites in this city. If I can get in there, I can get close to the General's friends".
"That's dangerous," Maya warned. "If they find out who you are, they'll kill you before you can blink."
"They think Silas Vane is dead," I reminded her. "Elias Thorne is just a low-level guard. No one looks twice at a man with a scarred face".
I felt a sudden surge of energy. For the first time in a year, I had a mission. I wasn't just surviving; I was hunting. I looked at the Ledger of Blood one more time. The names were waiting for me.
Suddenly, the lights in the basement flickered. Maya's screens went black for a split second before a single window popped up. It wasn't a file. It was a live video feed.
My heart stopped. The camera was inside our basement. It was watching us from the corner of the room.
A voice came through the speakers. It wasn't the General. It was a voice that sounded like it was being made by a machine.
"Major Vane," the voice said. "We knew you wouldn't stay in the mountains. We've been waiting for you to find the list."
Maya scrambled to turn off the computer, but the screen wouldn't close.
"The Syndicate does not have loose ends," the voice continued. "Look under the table, Silas."
I lunged for Maya, grabbing her and throwing her toward the door. I looked under the desk. A small, red light was blinking faster and faster. It was a bomb.
"Run!" I screamed.
We burst through the basement door just as the room behind us turned into a fountain of fire. The explosion threw us into the alleyway. I hit the pavement hard, my ears ringing and my vision blurry.
I looked up and saw a black car waiting at the end of the alley. The door opened, and a man stepped out. He wasn't wearing a military uniform. He was wearing an expensive suit. He looked at me and smiled.
"You're late for your interview, Elias," the man said.
I stared at him. It was the man from the secret files. The billionaire. He knew my new name. He knew where I was. And he wasn't trying to kill me. He was inviting me in.
"Who are you?" I gasped, trying to stand up.
"I'm the man who really owns the Black Ravens," he said. "And I have a job for a dead man."
I looked at Maya, who was lying on the ground, coughing from the smoke. My revenge was supposed to be simple. But as I looked at the man in the suit, I realized that I was being pulled into a game that was much bigger than I ever imagined.
Would I join him to get close to Sterling? Or was this another trap meant to erase me forever?