The body was found at dawn, hanging from the gates of the new community center.
Michael had been awake for hours, unable to sleep, his mind churning with the weight of everything he'd seen and done. He'd walked the walls of the city, watching the sun rise over the mountains, trying to find a moment of peace in the chaos of his thoughts. The beauty of the sunrise had almost made him forget the darkness that still lingered in the corners of his mind.
Almost.
Then he'd seen the body.
It was a woman—young, barely twenty, dressed in the tattered remnants of a worker's uniform. Her face was frozen in an expression of pure terror, her eyes wide, her mouth open in a silent scream. A piece of paper was pinned to her chest with a knife, the words scrawled in fresh blood.
THE SHADOW SYNDICATE HA
