The red line on the holographic map was a stark, unwavering cord. It connected our hopes to a single, pulsing point in the Mediterranean.
"Nyx," I said, breaking the stunned silence in the command center. "Show me. Now."
"Got it," she replied, her fingers moving quickly. The holographic map of the world faded away, replaced by a high-resolution, real-time satellite feed.
The island looked like a fortress.
It wasn't a tropical paradise. It was a jagged, black rock rising three hundred feet from a churning, angry sea. Sheer, unscalable cliffs formed a wall on all sides except one. There, a deep, narrow inlet was protected by a concrete and steel sea gate. In the center of the island stood a single shining white structure, a modern cube of glass and steel that resembled a museum more than a prison. A helipad, a large communications array, and what Leo quickly identified as automated anti-aircraft turrets were the only other visible features.
It was a sterile, beautiful, and completely impregnable cage.
"My God," Elias whispered, his voice filled with dread. "It's a black site. A private, corporate nation-state. You can't attack that. Not with a platoon. Not with an army."
"The new boss isn't just a man," Leo added, his voice low and rough as he sat stubbornly on the medical gurney. "He's a king. That's his throne."
"He's an arrogant one," I responded, my eyes fixed on the fortress. I walked over to the table and placed my hand on the leather-bound ledger. "Arrogant men get careless. They build monuments to their own power but forget the old, crumbling foundations beneath them. Elias, find this island in the book."
Elias, Marchand, and Aria gathered around the ledger, their gloved hands turning the ancient, fragile pages.
"We're looking for an index, a location, a code name..." Marchand murmured, his sharp mind a good balance to Elias's experience. "Ah. Here."
He pointed to a chapter near the book's end: 'Project Aegis.'
"'Aegis,'" I repeated, feeling the weight of the word like a shield.
"It's the Greek word for Zeus's shield," Aria whispered, her eyes wide. "A perfect, impenetrable defense."
"Not so perfect," Elias said, scanning the dense, handwritten notes of Jacques Dubois. "According to this, 'Aegis' was the Syndicate's ultimate contingency. It's not just a prison. It's their bank. Their central server. It's where they handle everything too sensitive for a normal network."
"It's the Curator's Hoard," I realized, connecting the dots. "The real one. Finch's digital vault was just his backup plan. This… this is the source."
A sickening understanding washed over me. "Nyx... the signal. The biometric feed. You said it was the most secure signal you've ever seen."
"It is," she confirmed, her brow furrowed. "A custom-built protocol. Impenetrable."
"He's not broadcasting from a simple monitor," I said, staring at the fortress on the screen. "He's broadcasting from their central server. From the most secure data haven on the planet. He's plugged Dante directly into their mainframe."
The room fell silent. The new boss hadn't just taken Dante; he had made him a living part of his own security system. He was using Dante's very heartbeat as the encryption key for his own signal, a constant, arrogant taunt. He was daring us to act.
"It's a trap," Leo said flatly. "A perfect trap. He knows we have the ledger. He knows we can find him. He's holding the bait, and the entire island is the bear trap. The moment we make a move, he kills Dante and disappears."
"He's right," Elias agreed, his face serious. "We can't attack the island. And we can't trade the ledger. We are in a strategic and tactical deadlock."
Aria looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "So what do we do?" she whispered. "Do we just… let him die?"
I stood at the head of the table. I was supposed to be the leader, the one with a plan. I looked at the fortress on the screen. I saw the wounded, broken faces of my new family. And I focused on the ledger, the weapon that the man who started this war had died trying to create.
I thought about the new boss's arrogance, the taunt, the signal. He's broadcasting out.
A bold, reckless idea began to form. I turned to Nyx.
"You're right," I said. "We can't assault the island. He's expecting an army. He wants a physical attack, a full-frontal assault. We're not going to give him that."
Nyx looked up, her eyes narrowing as she sensed the change in my tone. "What are you suggesting, Queen?"
"He's broadcasting out," I said, my voice steady. "He's created a secure, one-way data stream from his most secure server to us. He's so proud of his signal that he's been giving it to us. But a broadcast, no matter how secure, is a vulnerability. It's a door he's left open."
Nyx's eyes widened as the implications hit her. "A back door... you're saying... it's not a one-way street."
"He's sending a signal out," I said, a slow smile forming on my lips. "I want to know if we can send one in. He thinks he's a god, broadcasting from his heaven. I want you to be the serpent. I want you to crawl back up that data stream, right into his digital garden."
Nyx paused for a moment, the sheer impossibility of the plan settling in. Then a wild grin broke across her face. "You... you want me to hack God? Using the heartbeat of his own prisoner as the key?"
"Exactly," I confirmed. "We're not just going to rescue Dante. We're going to use the signal he's giving us to infect their entire system, crash their bank, and burn their fortress to the ground. We're going to take our king and his kingdom at the same time."