My husband violently shoved me to the marble floor in front of five hundred executives after kissing his assistant on stage at his CEO party. As the crowd laughed and he bellowed into the microphone for me to know my place, I quietly pulled out my phone. He thought he was humiliating a helpless housewife, completely unaware that the company's billionaire founder was the man I just messaged.

The rain swept over the Brooklyn docks in heavy, freezing sheets.

Inside Warehouse 42—a abandoned, rusting brick structure overlooking the dark waters of the East River—the air smelled of saltwater, motor oil, and old iron. Dim yellow floodlights hung from the ceiling, casting long, menacing shadows across the concrete floor.

Julian stood near a rusted shipping container, wearing a dark raincoat, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Beside him stood Sienna, shivering violently in the damp cold.

Across from them stood three men dressed in dark leather coats. The leader—a tall, scarred man named Viktor—sat on a wooden crate, balancing a heavy silver briefcase on his knees.

"You're late, Miller," Viktor grunted, his voice thick with a heavy foreign accent.

"I had to make sure I wasn't followed," Julian replied nervously, his eyes darting toward the dark corners of the warehouse. "Do you have the cash?"

Viktor snapped the latches of the briefcase open, turning it toward Julian. Inside lay neatly bound stacks of hundred-dollar bills totaling five million dollars, with an offshore transfer slip for the remaining five million.

Julian’s eyes lit up with sickening greed. "Beautiful."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, metallic USB drive. "This contains the complete source code for Project Aegis. Once you plug this into your terminal, the key will self-delete from the primary server, leaving no trace."

Viktor reached out his hand for the drive. "Hand it over."

"First, the transfer confirmation," Julian insisted, holding the drive back.

Before Viktor could answer, a loud, metallic CLANG echoed through the massive warehouse!

The heavy metal doors behind Julian slammed shut! High-powered halogen searchlights suddenly snapped on from the catwalks high above, illuminating the entire space in blinding, brilliant light!

"FBI! Nobody move!" a voice boomed over a loudspeaker.

Dozens of heavily armed federal agents, flanked by elite private security contractors from Vance Technologies, poured out from behind the shipping containers, weapons raised and laser sights painting crimson dots across the arms and chests of Viktor’s men!

Viktor and his guards instantly threw their hands into the air, dropping their weapons to the concrete floor.

Julian gasped, dropping the briefcase as cash scattered across the wet floor. "No! No! This is a mistake!"

From the shadows near the main entrance, a figure stepped forward.