The decision, once made, changed the atmosphere of the house.
It was no longer merely guarded.
It became operational.
For the first time since Ben resurfaced, Zayn and Martin were not reacting — they were preparing to hunt.
And preparation, Zayn discovered, was its own kind of war.
The study transformed into a command center.
Digital maps of the city glowed across multiple screens. Security grids layered over traffic routes, blind spots marked in red, police patrol frequencies annotated in precise timestamps. Every movement Lena had made in the last month was reconstructed, analyzed, predicted.
Patterns.
Habits.
Vulnerabilities.
All of it weaponized.
Zayn stood at the head of the table while Martin briefed the assembled team — a small, discreet unit of specialists who moved with
