THE DEVILS LAST WITNESS

Chapter 5: The Crimson Ledger

The laser dot settled over Ava Carter's heart.

Time seemed to stop.

Then Damian Cross slammed into her, sending them both crashing across the deck as a deafening gunshot split the night. The bullet tore through the railing where Ava had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.

Panic erupted aboard the river cruiser.

Passengers screamed and rushed for cover. Glass shattered. The captain desperately steered the vessel toward the nearest dock.

"Move!" Damian shouted.

He pulled Ava behind a steel support column as two more shots rang out.

"The sniper isn't working alone."

As if on cue, three armed men emerged from the lower deck. They wore expensive suits instead of tactical gear, blending perfectly with the wealthy passengers.

Moretti's assassins.

One calmly drew a silenced pistol.

"Victor Moretti sends his regards."

Damian fired first.

The first assassin fell.

The second disappeared behind the bar.

The third advanced without hesitation, revealing a tattoo of a crimson devil on his wrist.

He wasn't just a hitman.

He was a believer.

Using the confusion as cover, Nikolai led Ava through the ship's narrow service corridors.

"Keep the journal hidden," he whispered.

"What makes this journal so important?"

"It isn't the journal."

He looked at her gravely.

"It's what's missing from it."

Before Ava could ask another question, Nikolai stopped before a locked maintenance hatch.

He opened it with an old brass key.

A narrow tunnel descended beneath the riverbank.

"This passage leads outside the city."

Damian appeared moments later, breathing heavily.

"They'll track us within minutes."

Nikolai nodded.

"Then we split up."

"No," Ava protested. "We stay together."

Damian met her eyes.

"If we stay together, we're easier to find."

The thought of separating unsettled her more than she expected.

Elsewhere, in the snow-covered mountains overlooking Zurich, Switzerland, an imposing fortress served as the hidden headquarters of the Devil's Kingdom.

Its existence was unknown to governments.

Inside a vast chamber lined with marble pillars, twelve shadowed figures sat around a circular black table.

Each controlled a different piece of the world's underworld—arms trafficking, cybercrime, political influence, banking, intelligence, and organized crime.

Victor Moretti entered without speaking.

Every conversation stopped.

An elderly woman seated at the head of the table broke the silence.

"The witness still lives."

Moretti inclined his head.

"For now."

She slid a sealed black envelope toward him.

"You've underestimated her."

"I won't make that mistake again."

The woman smiled faintly.

"See that you don't."

As Moretti opened the envelope, even his expression changed.

Inside was an old photograph.

A little girl.

Standing beside a man in military uniform.

The girl was Ava Carter.

The soldier was Damian Cross.

Written on the back were six chilling words:

"She was chosen before she remembered."

Back in Prague, dawn painted the rooftops gold.

Ava and Damian hid inside an abandoned clockmaker's workshop overlooking the famous Astronomical Clock.

For hours, neither spoke.

Finally, Ava broke the silence.

"You knew me as a child."

Damian didn't deny it.

"Yes."

"My father knew you."

"Yes."

"You've been protecting me for years."

Another pause.

"Yes."

She stared at him, hurt replacing anger.

"So everything about my life..."

"...was planned?"

Damian looked away.

"I hoped you'd never have to learn the truth."

Before Ava could press him further, she opened the leather journal once more.

Something was different.

Hidden between two pages was a folded sheet she hadn't noticed before.

It contained a hand-drawn map of Europe.

Several cities were circled in red:

Budapest. Prague. Zurich. Rome. Istanbul. London.

At the center of the map was a handwritten phrase:

"Find the Crimson Ledger before the Devil finds his Last Witness."

"What is the Crimson Ledger?" Ava whispered.

Damian's face turned pale.

"It doesn't just expose Victor Moretti."

"What then?"

"It contains the names of every member of the Devil's Kingdom."

Ava looked again at the map.

This was no longer about surviving.

It was about bringing down an empire that reached across continents.

Outside, the bells of Prague began to ring.

Neither of them noticed the tiny drone hovering above the workshop window, transmitting live images to an unknown observer hundreds of kilometers away.

On a monitor inside a private command center, Isabella Romano watched Ava studying the map.

She smiled for the first time.

"She's following the path exactly as predicted."

A voice behind her asked quietly,

"Should we eliminate her now?"

Isabella closed the monitor.

"No."

Her eyes gleamed with quiet calculation.

"Not yet."

"Because the Crimson Ledger cannot be found..."

..not without her ,the devil's last murder

witness.