The Austrian border was a ghost of its former self, a line on a map guarded more by cameras than men. As the silver Audi crossed into the Tyrol region, the air changed—sharper, colder, carrying the scent of pine and high-altitude ozone. Inside the car, the silence was no longer heavy with fear, but with the kinetic energy of a calculated counter-strike. Seraphina watched the GPS, her high-IQ tactical mind synchronized with the flickering blue dot that represented their progress toward the extraction point.
"Three minutes to the rally point," she said, her voice devoid of the tremors that had plagued her in the London fog.
Alessandro sat beside her, his hand resting near the gear shift, his eyes scanning the rear-view mirror for the tell-tale sweep of headlights. The wound in his shoulder
