**“They're going to kill him."**
Calla's voice barely trembled as she slammed her encrypted tablet onto Ivy's desk.
Ivy scanned the screen.
**Motorcade Intercepted – Location: Brooklyn Shipyard.**
**EMP Detonation Recorded.**
**Biometric Link: Severed.**
Her blood turned cold.
“Where's Lucas?" Ivy asked.
“Upstairs. Monitoring vitals. You have twenty minutes before the signal degradation becomes irreversible."
“How long until the chip fails completely?"
“Ninety minutes," Calla whispered. “Max."
---
Adrian had insisted on taking a low-profile route to that morning's investor review. Ivy hadn't argued—until now.
She tapped Lucas's comm line.
“Can you track the chip remotely?"
“I'm getting flickers—manual pings. They're moving him, but the chip's stuck in a neuro-desync loop. He
