Chapter 46
The sun had set over two hours ago.
Inside the main kitchen of Heroes Landing, I stood by the windows, arms crossed tight over my chest.
Every minute on the wall clock felt like a physical blow. Evelyn had driven my truck down to the valley market at ten in the morning to buy herbs, prime cuts, and fresh berries. It was now three o'clock.
"She isn't answering her comms, Carlos," Chloe said, stepping out of the East Wing corridor into the kitchen. She had discarded her cozy loungewear for fitted pants and a dark knit shirt, her hair tied back in a tight braid.
"Her signal’s gone completely dark," Sienna added, zipping into the room in a blur of silver and dark turquoise, coming to a sudden halt.
Her hair was sticking up in static-charged spikes.
"I ran the perimeter loop twice. The truck is still parked right in the public lot near the riverfront walk. There's no sign of her."
My jaw tightened until my teeth ground together. "Did you talk to the locals?"
"We retraced every step," Chloe nodded, her voice grim. "The butcher said she was in high spirits. The grocer said she bought three crates of berries. But the shopkeeper at the spice market near the end of the alleyway... he told us she had a confrontation."
I turned toward her instantly. "What kind of confrontation?"
"Another woman," Sienna chimed. "The clerk said a woman in a fancy suit stepped out of the back room and confronted Evelyn by name.
They exchanged words—he couldn't hear what they said, but Evelyn stayed totally calm.
She bought her spices, walked out into the narrow alleyway behind the shop...
and then the clerk heard a strange, high-frequency pop.
Like air being sucked out of a vacuum. When he looked outside, Evelyn was gone, and her paper bag was lying on the cobblestones. "
My stomach twisted into a knot.
“A quantum displacement beam,” I whispered.
"I came straight back to you to regroup," Sienna said, placing her hand over my tensed forearm. "We need to find out who took her, Carlos."
I turned toward the master console near the kitchen pantry. "Gid. What do the estate arrays say?"
G.I.D.E.O.N. glided forward on his tread-wheels. His primary optical sensors pulsed in an alert, analytical amber as three-dimensional diagnostic graphs illuminated above the console.
"Analytical assessment yields zero localized tracking metrics, Master Carlos," G.I.D.E.O.N.
reported. "The spatial displacement executed in the alleyway was damp-shielded at a military level.
Zero residual dark-matter particles remain in the valley air, rendering conventional telemetry useless.
However, utilizing our encrypted communications array, I have initiated direct contact protocols with primary external threat entities to determine culpability. "
"Contact protocols?" Sienna asked, blinking. "Who are you calling?"
"Executing Frequency Override One: The Shadow Syndicate," G.I.D.E.O.N. announced, activating the speakerphone grid embedded in the ceiling rafters.
The speaker crackled with static for two tense seconds before a distorted voice rumbled into the kitchen. It was High Commander Malakor of the Shadow Syndicate.
"Steeltitan," Malakor growled, distortion buzzing over the line. "Why are you hijacking my flagship's secure channel? Our truce was established. My vessels have withdrawn ten miles beyond your valley boundary."
I stepped up to the console. "Evelyn Cross was snatched from the valley market three hours ago, Malakor. A quantum displacement beam. Did your syndicate break our truce?"
A beat of silence met my question over the speaker. Then, Malakor let out a metallic scoff that rattled the speaker housing.
"Do you take me for a fool, Steeltitan?" Malakor spat back.
"I am currently defending my eastern border against three rival warlords.
If I had seized Vespera, her head would already be mounted on my flagship's bow, and I would be broadcasting her execution to every underworld faction on the continent.
I do not hide behind quantum displacement beams when I strike.
Check your own government's backyard, Steeltitan. The Syndicate had no hand in this."
The signal cut out with a sharp click. G.I.D.E.O.N.’s optical sensors flickered.
"Voice-stress analysis and telemetry validation confirm High Commander Malakor's statement is ninety-nine point four percent truthful," G.I.D.E.O.N. noted. "The Shadow Syndicate is not responsible for Guest Cross's abduction."
Chloe’s blue eyes narrowed. "Which leaves only one other power capable of fielding an orbital quantum displacement grid."
"Executing Frequency Override Two: The Hero Bureau," G.I.D.E.O.N. announced, tapping the interface.
The speaker chimed, and a crisp, sterile audio feed connected directly to Director Henderson’s private bridge line at Bureau Headquarters in Sector 4.
"Vance?" Henderson’s authoritative voice echoed across the room. "Why is your droid overriding my direct line?"
"Evelyn Cross was abducted from the local market three hours ago, Henderson," I said. "Quantum teleportation. Did the Bureau break our agreement?"
Henderson let out a smooth, practiced sigh over the speaker—the tone of a politician dealing with an unruly subordinate.
"Don't be ridiculous, Vance. The Hero Bureau abides by its formal agreements.
Our orbital arrays have been recalibrated, and our tactical teams are nowhere near your mountain pass.
If the girl is missing, she likely staged her own disappearance or returned to her syndicate roots.
You cannot expect a criminal to remain domesticated in a mountain cabin forever. "
I felt Chloe stiffen beside me. But before I could speak, Henderson continued, his tone dripping with condescending reassurance.
“Gid?” I asked.
“I believe, sir, you do need to hear the statistics, to know what you already do with a ninety four percent certainty."
I smiled bitterly.
“I’ll become the villain of this whole planet,” I said coldly, staring the man in the face. “I’ll destroy your entire base without a second thought. I’ll destroy you. So, instead of me having to do that, and then after you tell me where she is. How about we just skip that step?”
Henderson scoffed. "I told you. I don’t have a clue.”
The line went dead.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the kitchen. I didn't say a word. I just stood there, staring at the speaker grille in the ceiling.
Sienna’s hazel eyes widened.
"He lied to us," Sienna hissed, electric static snapping violently across her collarbones. "He signed the truce on stream to save face, and then he used a stealth operative to snatch Evelyn the second she stepped into town alone!"
A cold clarity took over my mind, flushing away every trace of doubt. They had taken a guest from my sanctuary. They had taken a woman who had stood in my kitchen in a yellow polka-dot apron, making muffins, trying to learn how to be human again.
Without a word, I turned on my heel and walked out of the kitchen.
I walked down the dark corridor of the West Wing, up the private spiral staircase, and pushed open the doors to the master suite.
The room was quiet, bathed in the cool moonlight filtering through the balcony glass.
I walked past the bed, past the stone hearth, and stopped in front of the tall, reinforced steel armoire set into the far wall.
I placed my bare hand against the biometric scanner panel. The steel doors disengaged, swinging open to reveal the dark interior.
Hanging inside, untouched for over five years, was my old suit.
It wasn't a sleek, colorful costume made for media cameras or PR photo ops.
It was a massive, industrial suit of matte-gray titanium-composite armor, reinforced with dark tungsten shoulder plates, a reinforced chest vault, and heavy kinetic dampeners built to withstand orbital impacts.
The surface was scuffed, pitted, and battle-tested from fifteen years of frontline warfare—the suit of Steeltitan, the undisputed number-one juggernaut in the nation.
I looked at my reflection in the full-length mirror mounted inside the door. I saw a man who had built a sanctuary to hide from his past, but the world had come knocking at my gate, and it had taken one of my own.
I reached into the armoire. I stripped off my blue button-down shirt, letting it fall to the floorboards.
I stepped into the heavy leg conduits, locking the tungsten boots around my ankles.
The heavy chest vault sealed over my broad torso with a deep, resonant CLANK-HISS that shook the room's floorboards.
The heavy pauldrons locked over my shoulders, and as I tightened the gauntlets around my wrists, the ancient, familiar weight of Steeltitan settled over me.
The master suite doors creaked open behind me.
I turned around smoothly, my heavy armor plates clicking into alignment. Chloe and Sienna stood in the doorway.
Chloe looked at me, her gaze sweeping over my heavy grey armor. "Where are you going, Carlos?"
"Back to Sector 4," I rumbled, my voice carrying through my suit's acoustic vox-grille like thunder rolling over granite. "To Director Henderson's headquarters. To have a chat with him."
Chloe stepped forward, her voice sharp and decisive as she called out into the stairwell. "Gid, are our suits fixed?"
"Fixed and improved, Miss Sterling," G.I.D.E.O.N.’s voice echoed up the stairs. "Solar heat dispersion expanded by forty percent for your armor, and kinetic dampener latency reduced by sixty percent for Guest Drake."
Chloe nodded, her blue eyes blazing with fierce determination as she turned back to me. "Get our suits ready!"
Sienna grinned beside her, electric static snapping off her fingertips as she brought her fist against her open palm with a loud CRACK. "Yeah, Big Man! We're coming with you."
I looked at the two of them—at Chloe and Sienna, standing firm in their loungewear, ready to put their armor back on for our family. A wave of pride rose in my chest.
A slow, heavy smile broke across my face behind my armor plating.
“And don’t even think of telling us to stay behind,” Chloe said, crossing her arms. “Evelyns our friend, we’re not gonna let them take her!”
"I wasn't going to," I replied, I raised my heavy gauntlets, locking the wrist plates in place. "I was just waiting for you to follow me.” Then I grinned. “Especially you, Sienna.”
“Especially me?” The speedster touched her chest in confusion. “Why especially me?”
“Becuase, I need you to conduct the livestream.”