Skye arrived at Slum Area C just outside the city. It was already well past ten o’clock in the evening, and the streets were quiet, the narrow alleys dark and empty. In places like this, criminals prowled under the cover of night, and ordinary people locked themselves away early, afraid to leave their homes after dark.

  A figure stood a short distance away, leaning against a wall in a black shirt, waiting.

  "Where's the thing?" Skye’s voice was tense, his impatience showing.

  Axel reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black memory card, handing it over quickly before stepping back into the shadows.

  Skye didn’t seem to notice Axel’s subtle retreat. After taking the card, he didn’t even look at Axel; instead, he immediately pulled out a small device with an LCD screen and slid the card into it.

  Axel exhaled in relief. It seemed like things weren’t going sideways. Skye didn’t appear to be working for Wolfe. If he had been, Axel would’ve been dead already.

  The device’s screen remained blank. Skye frowned, confused.

  “Uh… actually, this is the wrong card. It’s mine,” Axel said casually, stretching out his hand to retrieve the memory card.

  Nothing had gone wrong so far, and Axel kept his cool. Skye, on the other hand, looked at him with confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?” He scratched the rough stubble on his chin, still perplexed.

  Without answering, Axel gave a sharp whistle.

  The whistle cut through the night like a blade, sharp and clear in the otherwise silent street.

  A moment later, a little girl in a worn-out linen dress appeared cautiously from around the corner, handing Axel a black memory card.

  “Here, it’s this one,” Axel said, offering the card again.

  Skye chuckled, a mix of amusement and embarrassment. He slapped his waist and shook his head. "Seriously? You’re playing these games with me?" He stopped mid-sentence, a realization dawning on him.

  This kid was smart—way too smart for his age. Axel had already felt the weight of Wolfe’s threat before he’d even called Skye. If Skye was working for Wolfe, Axel would’ve been dead the moment the card was in his hands. But Axel had been one step ahead. He’d made sure Annabelle took the memory card and hid it in case things went south. If Skye turned on him, Axel would have leverage—something to fight for.

  Skye’s eyes softened as he watched the two siblings. The earlier frustration from being doubted evaporated. Before their meeting, Axel had already prepared for the worst, a dangerous gamble.

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  He glanced back at Axel and Annabelle, two orphans who’d registered their names just three years ago. Before then, they’d never received any official assistance, scraping by on their own. The slum hut they lived in had been bought with the little money they could scrounge together. While other kids lived carefree under their parents’ protection, these two had been fighting to survive every day.

  Skye’s voice softened, and he gave Annabelle a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  Annabelle blinked, still nervous, but nodded.

  Skye inserted the memory card into the device again. The table appeared on the screen, and Skye’s eyes immediately narrowed as he scanned the names. When he saw the two infected people, his expression darkened.

  “The two that were marked ‘Accepted’… those are the infected people from Area C, right?” Skye asked.

  Axel nodded. “Yeah. So, is this enough to convict him?”

  Skye’s gaze stayed fixed on the screen as he thought it over. “The evidence chain has to be solid. This alone can link his men to the infected people, but it won’t be enough to lock him down for good.”

  He paused, then looked at Axel, his voice more serious now. “But don’t worry. No one who dares mess with taboos like this will get away. This is enough to get him arrested. Once he’s in custody, I’ll make sure he confesses one way or another.”

  It wasn’t about torture. In the Awakener era, making someone talk wasn’t as difficult as people thought, especially someone like Wolfe, who wasn’t an Awakened.

  But this wasn’t as simple as Skye was making it sound. He was only trying to put Axel and Annabelle at ease.

  What Skye needed to do now was dig into the rest of the people on that list—figure out what “accepted” and “rejected” really meant. He could already guess the worst-case scenario: that all of them would be gone by the time they found them.

  The moment Skye had seen that list, he had a bad feeling. Wolfe wasn’t just some petty criminal. The whole damn list was made up of Awakened people—elderly, yes, and in the early stages, but still dangerous. Most of them were disabled or incapacitated, but killing them all? That would be a heinous crime.

  But if Wolfe was behind the infected outbreaks, Skye knew he wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter them.

  "Freya," Skye said as he sent the list to his second-in-command, "I need you to find these people. Protect them. Then have the others dig up any connections to Wolfe."

  Skye’s gut told him that he was already too slow.

  As his eyes scanned the list again, he caught sight of a name that made him pause—a person living in Slum C. It was strange for an Awakened to be in the slums, and while Skye didn’t have many trustworthy people right now, he’d have to handle this one himself.

  He sighed and turned to Axel and Annabelle. "You two..." He knew he’d been overconfident earlier. Axel’s sharp instincts had clearly picked up on the danger. “You guys should stay out of this. It's too dangerous.”

  "We’ll follow you," Axel said with quiet determination. "We might be able to help."

  This kid, he thought, had guts. Still, he wasn’t about to throw him into the fire. The three of them made their way to the address on the list. When they arrived, the building stood out. It was completely different from the rest of the slums—an elegant two-story house with a small courtyard in front, though it was dark and lifeless at the moment.

  Skye eyed the place carefully. "I think we’re too late."

  He glanced around and realized the place had been recently occupied. The door was clean—no cobwebs, no dust—and the plants in the yard looked well-kept.

  Axel looked around too. This area was at the edge of the slums, and beyond it, the woods stretched out, their shadows deep in the dark. The place might have been a hellhole, but the view wasn’t bad, if you ignored the ever-present threat of wild beasts that lurked outside the walls.

  But it wasn’t the view that caught Axel’s attention. In the woods not far away, a faint flicker of light was visible. It wasn’t the usual eerie green glow of infected—it was red.