Chapter 13 The Omega They Targeted #2
The suspicious vehicles.
By the time he finished, Nathan had already begun typing.
"I'll contact everyone I still trust."
"Thank you."
"Damien."
"What?"
"If this is who I think it is..."
Nathan paused.
"...don't try handling it alone."
"I'm not planning to."
"You'd better not."
The call ended.
Damien stood motionless in the middle of the dining room.
For years he had believed his instincts no longer existed.
That whatever had been taken from him in those military laboratories had disappeared forever.
Now they surged through him with overwhelming clarity.
Every sense felt sharper.
Every sound seemed louder.
His heartbeat settled into the calm rhythm he remembered from combat.
Not panic.
Preparation.
His body wasn't asking permission.
It had already decided.
Find Ethan.
Protect him.
Bring him home.
The intensity startled Damien.
Not because it existed.
Because it felt so undeniably natural.
He grabbed his jacket and headed toward the garage.
Claire arrived just as he reached the front entrance.
"I've spoken with the institute."
"They confirmed he left hours ago."
"I know."
"I've already activated company security."
She looked directly at him.
"What are you going to do?"
"Find him."
"How?"
"I don't know yet."
"But I will."
She stepped closer.
"I've never seen you like this."
Neither had he.
Normally every decision passed through layers of analysis before becoming action.
Tonight those calculations happened almost instantly.
Every thought led to the same conclusion.
Move.
Nathan called again twenty minutes later.
"I've located something."
"I'm listening."
"A parking garage."
"City surveillance cameras caught Ethan entering."
"What about leaving?"
"He didn't."
Damien's grip tightened around the steering wheel.
"Show me."
When Damien arrived, two former members of his old reconnaissance unit were already waiting.
Both had left military service years earlier.
Neither asked unnecessary questions.
One simply handed Damien a tablet.
"We recovered everything the city cameras still had."
Security footage began playing.
Ethan entering the garage.
Walking toward his car.
Then...
Nothing.
The camera feed suddenly froze.
Thirty-seven seconds of missing video.
When the recording resumed, the parking level was empty.
Nathan looked grim.
"Professional overwrite."
"They knew exactly which cameras to disable."
Damien slowly surveyed the garage himself.
The concrete floor showed no obvious signs of struggle.
No broken glass.
No abandoned belongings.
Everything appeared almost unnaturally clean.
Then something caught his attention.
Near the front tire of a parked vehicle.
A faint silver reflection.
He crouched.
His breath caught.
It was Ethan's pen.
The custom engraving remained clearly visible.
Ethan Brooks
Wolfe Industries
Damien carefully picked it up.
He immediately understood.
Ethan hadn't dropped it accidentally.
He had left it.
A message.
A trail.
Proof that he had been here.
Nathan looked over his shoulder.
"He wanted you to find it."
"I know."
Damien closed his hand around the pen.
For a brief moment, every emotion he'd kept under rigid control threatened to break free.
Fear.
Anger.
Guilt.
He had promised Ethan he would keep him safe.
Now Ethan was somewhere unknown because of secrets connected to Damien's past.
The thought cut deeper than any physical wound.
Nathan rested a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll get him back."
Damien looked toward the empty parking level.
"No."
His voice remained calm.
Almost frighteningly calm.
"I'll bring him home."
Nathan recognized that tone immediately.
It was the same voice Damien had used before leading rescue operations behind enemy lines.
Measured.
Focused.
Absolutely committed.
"What do you need?"
Damien's answer came without hesitation.
"Everyone who still remembers Project Aegis."
"The ones who refused to stay silent."
"The ones who owe me favors."
Nathan smiled grimly.
"That's a very short list."
"It's enough."
Within an hour, encrypted calls spread across three countries.
Former intelligence analysts.
Military physicians who had resigned rather than participate.
Special operations veterans.
People who had disappeared into ordinary civilian lives years earlier.
One by one, they answered Damien's call.
Not because he was a billionaire.
Not because he offered money.
Because once, long ago, he had saved their lives.
And now he was asking them to help save someone who had become his.
As midnight settled over the city, Damien stood before the enormous map covering the wall of Wolfe Industries' secure operations room.
Possible routes.
Safe houses.
Military research facilities.
Everything connected to Project Aegis and its successor.
For years he had run from the ghosts of his past.
He had accepted broken memories.
Accepted stolen instincts.
Accepted the lie that some parts of himself were gone forever.
Those days ended tonight.
They had taken the one person who looked beyond his reputation and saw the man beneath it.
They had mistaken his years of restraint for weakness.
They were about to learn the truth.
Project Aegis had tried to create the perfect emotionless Alpha.
Instead, it had awakened one with something worth fighting for.
And Damien Wolfe intended to tear apart every secret they had built until Ethan Brooks was safely back where he belonged.
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