Chapter 27: The Devil's Etiquette
**[Back Alley, Aethelburg Shipyards - 10:16 PM]**
The world was reduced to the blinding glare of two headlights cutting through the darkness.
Behind them, the night sky glowed a furious, hellish orange.
The heat of the incinerated book depository pressed against their backs like the breath of a dragon.
In front of them, a ghost stood perfectly illuminated in the harsh light.
Elias Deckard.
He was not pointing a gun. He was not crouched in a combat stance.
Instead, he stood with his hands clasped loosely in front of him.
A picture of perfect, predatory calm that was somehow more terrifying than any weapon.
His suit was immaculate, untouched by the chaos he had just unleashed.
Not a thread out of place, not a speck of ash on his shoulders.
The silence in the alley was absolute, broken only by the distant wail of sirens.
Emergency responders racing towards the wrong crisis.
Towards the decoy he had created.
Evelyn was a statue of coiled tension beside Alex, her handgun held low and out of sight.
A useless talisman against a man like this.
------
Deckard took a slow, deliberate step forward.
The crunch of gravel under his expensive Italian shoes unnaturally loud in the stillness.
"Detective Stone," he said, his voice not at all what Alex had expected.
It was smooth, cultured, and carried a tone of professional respect.
It was the most terrifying sound Alex had ever heard.
"And... Nyx, I presume," he continued, his pale gaze shifting to Evelyn with casual interest.
"A pleasure to finally meet you both in person."
He gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod of acknowledgment.
"Your work is remarkably elegant. The temporal paradox file on The Observatory was a particularly beautiful piece of code."
The compliment was a physical blow, a demonstration of his complete knowledge of their activities.
He didn't just know what they had done. He knew how they had done it.
Every digital fingerprint, every tactical decision.
"You've been a considerable nuisance," Deckard stated, his tone that of a CEO discussing a minor quarterly setback.
"But the game is over now. You have something that belongs to my employer."
He gestured with an open, almost placating hand towards Alex's backpack.
"The asset. The crystal core."
His voice dropped slightly, the politeness fraying to reveal cold steel beneath.
"Give it to me. And give me the laptop containing the recordings you just made."
"Do that," he said, his eyes never leaving Alex's face, "and I will let you walk away from here."
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Alex felt a surge of hot, defiant anger rising in his chest.
"We're not making a deal with a killer."
"Alex, don't," Evelyn whispered, her voice a tense warning.
Deckard's lips curved into something that was not quite a smile.
"Please, Detective. Let's not descend into melodrama."
"This isn't about morality. It is simply a business transaction."
"You are loose ends. My job is to resolve them."
"I am offering you the clean, quiet, and profitable option."
"Profitable?" Evelyn asked, her voice cool and steady, clearly playing for time.
"OmniTech is prepared to offer you a generous severance package for your silence," Deckard explained with corporate precision.
"Ten million dollars. Transferred to any untraceable account you wish."
"Consider it a consulting fee for a job well done."
"You found a security flaw in our operations. We are patching it."
"And you are being compensated for your discretion."
"And what guarantee do we have," Evelyn challenged, "that you won't just kill us the moment you have the core?"
Deckard's expression showed genuine, academic consideration of her question.
"A fair point," he conceded. "The guarantee is professional etiquette."
"Killing you here is messy. It creates a new problem."
"Gunshots, bodies, another police investigation that I would have to manage."
"My purpose is to solve problems, Nyx, not create new ones."
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"If you cooperate, I can tie you off cleanly as a resolved issue."
"If you resist..." he let the sentence hang in the air like smoke, "...then I am forced to cut you."
"It is simple risk management. Your lives, or a small amount of paperwork."
"I am hoping to avoid the paperwork."
While he spoke with corporate politeness, Alex was diving deep into his enhanced senses.
Pushing CrimeSync to its absolute limits, scanning the ghost in front of them.
*[CrimeSync: Analyzing subject... No conventional firearm detected. Subject is wearing thin, flexible graphene-weave body armor under his suit.]*
He appeared unarmed. But Alex knew that couldn't be possible.
*[High-energy signature detected. Source: a device mounted on the subject's left wrist. Energy frequency matches the Chronos Device, but concentrated and miniaturized.]*
*[Warning: The device is a weapon. A portable, directional EMP projector.]*
Alex's blood ran cold as the implications hit him.
A gun would have been a mercy compared to this.
Deckard had a weapon that could stop their hearts without leaving a mark.
And disable all their electronics in the process.
A fight was impossible. They would lose before it even began.
He gave Evelyn the tiniest, almost invisible shake of his head.
No fight. Stand down.
She understood instantly, her shoulders relaxing as she abandoned any thought of using her weapon.
------
The deal was poison. They both knew Deckard couldn't leave them alive.
Not with what they knew about Project Chimera and the temporal erasure capability.
He would eliminate them the moment he had the chance.
But a direct confrontation was certain suicide.
Evelyn took a step forward, a look of calm consideration spreading across her face.
"The offer is generous, Mr. Deckard," she said, her voice smooth as silk.
"And your logic is sound. It seems we have little choice in the matter."
She was capitulating. Alex felt a surge of confusion and alarm.
"However," she continued, her tone shifting subtly, "we have a counter-offer."
As she spoke, she subtly angled the burner phone in her hand.
Her thumb moving across the screen with practiced precision.
"You're absolutely right," she said, her eyes locked on Deckard's pale gaze.
"Killing us would be messy. But a full-blown corporate war with Stratos Global?"
"That would be a catastrophe."
For the first time, a flicker of something other than calm appeared in Deckard's eyes.
Confusion. The first crack in his professional armor.
"The data drive you are carrying in your jacket," Evelyn explained, her voice hardening like cooling steel.
"The one you just retrieved from the locker. It contains a little parting gift."
------
"Right now, as we speak, that drive is uploading its full contents to multiple destinations."
"Our beautifully fabricated intelligence about the new stealth drone."
"To the internal R&D servers at Stratos Global."
"And just for good measure, to the investigative desks of three major news agencies."
"The upload is timed," she said, her voice dropping to a deadly whisper.
"It completes in sixty seconds."
Deckard's professional mask finally cracked completely.
A flash of pure, unadulterated fury crossed his features.
He instinctively reached for the evidence pouch in his jacket.
"Don't bother," Evelyn warned, her voice sharp as a blade.
"The drive is rigged. Any attempt to remove it, disable it, or destroy it will only accelerate the upload process."
"The only way to stop it is with a ten-digit, one-time cancellation code."
She held up her burner phone, the screen glowing in the darkness.
"A code that only I possess."
She had flipped the entire board in a single move.
She had taken their failed trap and transformed it into an entirely new weapon.
They were no longer just holding the Chronos core as evidence.
They were holding OmniTech's corporate reputation hostage.
------
"You have a choice, Deckard," Alex said, finding his voice and pressing their sudden advantage.
"Let us walk away, and Evelyn stops the upload."
"You get to be the hero who prevented a major corporate espionage leak."
"Your secret remains safe."
"Or you make a move on us," he continued, his confidence growing, "and you spend the next year explaining to your board of directors how you personally initiated a multi-billion-dollar corporate war."
"Sixty seconds, Deckard," Evelyn said, her voice like arctic ice.
The ghost was trapped in his own web.
His jaw was clenched, a single muscle twitching in his cheek.
Those cold, empty eyes were now burning with murderous, frustrated rage.
He was a creature of perfect control, and for the first time in years, he had lost it.
His hand hovered in the space between his jacket and his wrist.
Caught between reaching for the poisoned data drive and his concealed weapon.
The sirens were getting closer, their wails echoing off the industrial buildings.
The seconds were counting down.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, the hunters had become the predators.
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**DETECTIVE'S LOG: ALEX STONE**
**CASE FILE: 002 - The Clockmaker (Unofficial)**
**STATUS:** Direct confrontation with Elias Deckard in progress. Standoff initiated.
**KEY EVIDENCE (CRIMESYNC DATA):**
* Threat Assessment: Target is armed with a miniaturized EMP weapon capable of cardiac disruption. Conventional combat is not viable.
* Strategic Reversal: Evelyn has initiated a "dead man's switch" scenario using the logic bomb data drive. A 60-second countdown ultimatum is in effect.
* Tactical Advantage: Deckard is momentarily checkmated by the threat of corporate exposure. His professional survival instincts are in conflict with his mission objectives.
* Current Situation: High-stakes standoff in back alley. Our survival depends entirely on his belief in the bluff and his calculation of professional consequences.
**CURRENT OBJECTIVE:** Exploit this 60-second window to negotiate safe passage and successful disengagement from hostile contact.
**PERSONAL NOTE:** Nyx just pulled off the most brilliant tactical reversal I've ever witnessed. She turned our certain death into his worst nightmare. We're not out of this yet, but for the first time tonight, we're not the ones trapped in the corner. Julian would be amazed at how far we've come from his simple murder case.
End of Chapter 27
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"The most dangerous enemy is the one who has nothing left to lose, until they realize they still have everything to lose."
To be continued...