Reid’s body trembled harder now. It was clear he was fighting to hold himself together, and his eyes held a kind of terror, the same fear Skye had seen in the eyes of the man who’d taken his own life.

  Skye waited, curiosity building. What had Reid seen that terrified him more than death itself?

  “We all owed him money from gambling, couldn’t pay it back,” Reid began, his voice shaky. “He gave us a choice: take his drug test, or refuse. But if we refused, we had to be his subordinates for ten years and keep our identities hidden.”

  The drug test. The mystery that had been haunting them for so long was finally coming to light. Skye could feel the truth getting closer, inch by inch.

  Now, he understood just how fast Axel had put everything together. From the assassin’s suicide to guessing the assassin’s identity, and finally, setting this whole trap in motion.

  It wasn’t the most sophisticated plan, but it was blunt, deadly—and it worked.

  Skye snapped back to the interrogation, pushing his thoughts aside. He asked again, “So, it sounds like you chose to refuse. Do you know what happened to the people who accepted this so-called ‘drug test’?”

  Reid shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Skye frowned, but he wasn’t discouraged. He’d expected this.

  But then Reid spoke again, his voice trembling. “But... I think they must’ve become infected.”

  That was a breakthrough.

  “Why do you think that?” Skye pressed.

  Reid’s voice quivered as he spoke. “I was with another guy from the list, his name was Sebastian. At the time, we didn’t know what the drug test was, so we just agreed to it.”

  “We’re older, and while the awakened are healthier, we didn’t want to spend the next ten years working for someone else.”

  “We went to his lab together. There were huge iron cages everywhere, with five or six people locked up in them. They’d all been through the drug test.”

  Reid paused, swallowing hard. “Then something went wrong that day. We saw one guy suddenly start convulsing, like he had epilepsy. His body shook, his eyes turned red, and his teeth and nails started growing like they were trying to tear through his skin. He looked at us like... like he wanted to eat us.”

  “That guy... he must’ve turned into an infected,” Reid said, his voice growing smaller. “And after that, we sure as hell didn’t want to go through with the test. But that day was a freak accident. The people in the lab didn’t want Wolfe to find out, so they kept quiet about it.”

  The room fell silent after Reid’s words.

  Sebastian. Skye’s heart skipped. That name... he knew it well. But what Reid didn’t know was that Sebastian had committed suicide.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  No surprise there. He’d witnessed Wolfe turning people into infected. For anyone, that was probably more horrifying than death itself.

  Skye leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “Last question. Where is his lab?”

  The interrogation had finally come to an end. Though Skye and the suspect were still talking through the one-way glass, Vexler couldn’t help but relax his furrowed brows. A single glance at Skye’s expression told him everything he needed to know. The man who’d walked into the bureau earlier, exuding that tough, gangster-like vibe, was now on the verge of cracking the biggest case of his career.

  As the door opened, Skye stepped out of the interrogation room, holding a stack of papers. He looked up in mild surprise, drenched in sweat from the intensity of the session.

  Outside, the captains from the other two teams, Kieran, Freya, and even Vexler himself were there. They all greeted him with smiles, admiration, and quiet praise. Then, as if on cue, applause broke out.

  “Skye, you’ve done well. Your counterattack was risky as hell, but it’s just like you. And damn exciting too,” Vexler said, giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder.

  Skye forced a smile, his eyes scanning the room. When he landed on the corner, his expression shifted.

  Axel was standing there, his bloodstains long dried but the injury still clearly visible—a deep wound through his abdomen. He should have been in the hospital hours ago.

  But Axel had insisted on staying. Years of fighting the scum of the slums had taught him one thing: if you weren’t sure your opponent was done, never let your guard down.

  “I’m just a participant in this plan,” Skye said, voice steady. “The real mastermind behind this is Axel. You’ve all heard of him.”

  At those words, every eye in the room turned to Axel. Despite the attention, Axel didn’t flinch.

  Vexler had noticed Axel earlier, though he’d assumed the young man was simply an injured member of the team.

  “Is this the kid?” Vexler asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Everyone had heard of Axel, of course, but wasn’t he still a student?

  Vince, the man standing next to Vexler with a perpetual sunny grin, couldn’t hide his surprise. He leaned toward Skye and whispered, “He doesn’t look that old.”

  Skye, unfamiliar with Vince’s full identity but understanding his position, nodded politely. “Yeah, he’s still in high school.”

  Vince, now more intrigued than ever, blinked in surprise but held back his questions. "How the hell did he get involved in something like this?" He muttered to himself. Then, realizing everyone else had already started to move, he cleared his throat. "Captain Skye, I’ll save the questions for later. Let’s get this handled first. I think this kid’s got quite the story."

  Skye nodded again, and they all moved toward their next steps.

  At this point, more than fifty people began filing onto buses, preparing to act.

  “I’ve got the intel we need,” Skye called out as he gathered everyone’s attention. “Wolfe controls a group of older, low-income awakened people through gambling. These people are mostly locals, though some come from out of town. Then he turns them into infected with his so-called ‘drug testing’ method.”

  “His motive is still unclear, but we’ve got a witness who’s given us the location of his lab. It’s in the basement of his Crown Hotel.” Skye’s voice was sharp, eyes glinting with determination. “Follow my car. We’re moving out.”

  The witness was in hand, and now it was just a matter of finding the place. Even if the infected had already been moved, the rest of the evidence lined up. With this information, they were on track to close the case.

  For the first time, Skye felt a flicker of real hope for a promotion. In the past, he’d been content fighting on the front lines. Promotions didn’t matter to him.

  But now, as the pieces fell into place, he understood. His past successes had been because the cases he’d worked on weren’t big enough, and the backgrounds weren’t deep enough.

  .....

  When Skye and the others arrived at the Crown Hotel, it was already surrounded. But these weren’t hotel guests—they were all from the Law Enforcement Bureau.

  In addition to the enforcement officers, there were also Cross and Nash from the district police station, along with various department heads milling about downstairs. To Skye’s surprise, Wolfe was also there.