THE RECKONING
PART ONE: THE DISCOVERY
12:03 AM — Council Headquarters, Geneva
The silence in the War Room was the kind that predated language. Elder Castellan sat at the head of a table carved from black marble, his hands folded with the kind of precision that came from seventy years of controlling chaos. Around him sat the Council’s seven remaining members the architects of empires, the builders of dynasties, the men who’d orchestrated the rise and fall of nations.
None of them were breathing.
“Marcus Sterling’s check in was supposed to happen at midnight,” someone said. The speaker’s voice had the particular quality of a man listening to his own death sentence being read aloud. “It’s now three minutes past. His phone is offline. The Plaza confirms his suite is empty. Security footag
