The Boy Who Gave the Robber One Last Warning

By 3:00 AM, the storm raged over Westbridge with gale-force winds, rattling the windows of the penthouse office in City Hall.

Commissioner Walter Vance stood by the panoramic window overlooking the city, sipping amber scotch from a crystal tumbler. The door clicked open, and Frank Thorne strode in without knocking, his face twisted in fury.

"Your men botched the highway ambush, Walter!" Thorne snarled, slamming his fist onto the mahogany conference table. "The prison van was intercepted! Marcus is gone, and the Reed kid was seen at the crash site!"

Commissioner Vance didn't turn around immediately. He took a slow sip of his drink. "You're getting sloppy, Frank. Eighteen years ago, you promised me that killing Daniel Reed would bury the dock investigations forever. Now his son is dismantling everything we've built in forty-eight hours."

"That kid is an eighteen-year-old mechanic!" Thorne hissed. "He's not a superhero! He's a pest!"

"He's Daniel Reed's blood," Vance said, turning around with cold, calculated eyes. "Daniel was the most relentless investigator this city ever produced. If Caleb has Daniel's files, he doesn't just have evidence against you—he has evidence that will send me to a federal penitentiary for high treason."

"Then we burn the city down until we find him," Thorne said, pulling an encrypted satellite phone from his pocket. "I have fifty men arriving from the docks. We raid every safehouse, every relative, every contact Daniel Reed ever had."

"And what about my daughter?" Vance asked, his voice suddenly dropping into a dangerous chill. "Sarah was seen with Miller and the boy."

Thorne stared at the Commissioner without blinking. "If your daughter chooses to stand in front of a speeding freight train, Walter, you'd better tell her to step off the tracks. Because nobody—not even your flesh and blood—stops *The Northern Star* from unloading."

Vance clenched his glass until the crystal cracked, bleeding slightly onto his palm. "If you harm one hair on Sarah's head, Frank, I will personally empty my service revolver into your skull."

"Then find her before I do," Thorne replied coldly, walking out the door.

Deep in the shadows of the municipal parking garage below, Caleb monitored the building's encrypted radio frequencies using the gear from Daniel's locker.

He heard the orders going out across the city. The trap was springing.