[POV: Sofia Lanka]

"Cut the engines and prepare for a hard drop. If a single Syndicate boot touches that girl before I do, I will burn this entire valley to the ground. Alistair, keep the thermal scanners locked on Beatrice. Jack, don't you dare leave my side."

Sofia’s voice was like ice cracking under pressure, cold and lethal. She stood in the center of the Monroe Iron-Sight transport, her boots braced against the vibrating deck. Through the reinforced viewscreen, the Piedmont airstrip looked like a scar of light on the dark Italian landscape. The Syndicate’s extraction team had established a perimeter of armored vehicles around a long-range jet, their floodlights...