The morning came thick with fog. A pale sunlight barely slipped through the layers of gray hanging above the city skyline. Draxton's central tower stood tall like a spear through the heavens gleaming, defiant, and humming with secrets.
Elias Thorne sat by the massive window of his penthouse, overlooking the city that once drowned him in obscurity and now whispered his name in corridors of power. His silk robe was loose around his frame, a half-empty espresso glass in his hand. Jude had briefed him earlier today was no ordinary day. A board vote was looming. One that could change the trajectory of Draxton forever.
His phone buzzed. Magritte.
Just seeing her name made his chest tighten.
I need to see you. Now. Come alone.
That was all the message said. No location. No tone. Just command.
Elias stared at it for a long moment. Was it a trap? Or a test? Magritte had been distant since the Havensgate gala, when her strange disappearance had coincided with the sudden leak of the company's confidential merger plans. Suspicion had grown among the inner circle but Elias never spoke it aloud.
He got dressed.
Forty minutes later, he stepped into an abandoned observatory on the edge of the old industrial district. Dust curled in the corners. The air smelled like rust and ghosts. And then her voice.
"I thought you'd take longer."
Magritte stood behind one of the telescopic pillars, a cigarette dancing between her fingers, lips slightly parted. Her hair was loose wild. There was something broken and beautiful about her today.
"Why here?" Elias asked.
"Because this place is dying. Like everything around you, Elias."
He stepped closer. "Then tell me who's killing it."
A pause.
She exhaled smoke. "They're setting you up again. Lewis got wind of a meeting Landon, Dexter, and someone else. Someone not on our radar."
"Another player?" Elias asked.
Magritte nodded. "A woman. Goes by Calysta. She's new, but she's powerful. Word is, she's the one who gave Landon the offshore account structure."
"That's impossible. I shut down every leak"
"She didn't need a leak. She *was* the leak."
Silence stretched between them like an unraveling thread.
Elias turned to the dusty glass, looking out into the vast skyline. "Then I need to meet her."
Magritte stepped forward, eyes suddenly soft. "Elias… they're not just trying to take your company. They're trying to erase you. Like the first time."
His hands clenched. "They erased Elias Thorne once. They won't erase Mr. Dime."
Later that day, Jude entered the office in a rush.
"Sir. You have a visitor."
Elias didn't turn. "I didn't schedule any meetings."
"She said you would want to see her. Her name is"
"Calysta," Elias finished.
Jude looked stunned.
"She's in the atrium. Should I bring her?"
"No," Elias said. "I'll go to her."
Calysta stood like a shadow sculpted from elegance. Tall, elegant, dressed in matte black with silver-threaded cuffs, she smiled as he approached.
"Mr. Dime," she greeted.
Elias studied her. "So you do exist."
"As do you. Barely."
He gestured toward the inner lounge. "Shall we?"
They sat opposite each other. The tension thickened with every breath.
"You came all this way," Elias said. "What do you want?"
"Only to see the face of a man who cheated death twice and still walks into fire."
"Do you always speak in riddles?"
"Only when I know the listener is smart enough to understand the answers."
She leaned in.
"There's a vote tomorrow. If it goes against you, you lose 41% leverage."
"I already know."
"Do you know Dexter plans to flip three board members with blackmail files?"
That made Elias pause. "What do you want in return for this information?"
She smiled thinly. "A partnership. One you'll need, sooner than you think."
Later that night, Elias met Lewis on the rooftop bar of their secondary safehouse.
"You trust her?" Lewis asked.
"I don't," Elias said. "But I trust ambition. And she's got enough of it to spark a war."
"You going to give her what she wants?"
"I'll give her a piece of the table. Not the table itself."
Lewis chuckled. "You sound more like Thorne every day."
Elias looked at the skyline. "Maybe I'm becoming him. Or maybe… I always was."
The smoke curled into the air.
A storm was coming.
But this time, Elias Thorne wouldn't drown.