The moment the light from the phone screen faded, the darkness in the room felt different. It was no longer a solid, hopeless blackness. Instead, it now felt like a heavy blanket of anticipation, as if the room itself was holding its breath. Silica's message seemed to hang in the air around them, a ghostly promise that had replaced their despair with a fragile and terrifying sense of hope. Her words were a map to a possibility they couldn't yet see: The wolf is wounded. The jackals are circling.

Ace sat in the silence, the cold, dead burner phone gripped tightly in his bound hands. The others had retreated into their own thoughts, but the feeling in the room had shifted. The occasional sniffle or shaky breath was no longer a sound of someone giving up. Now, it was a sound of strained patience. They were all waiting. The arrival of dawn was their only goal.

Time began to move in a slow, painful crawl. With no windows to the outside world, they could only measure its passage by the growing aches in their muscles and the dry, painful thirst in their throats. Ace found himself concentrating on the tiniest sounds from beyond their prison door. He could hear the distant, almost silent hum of the building's air system, and the faint echo of a single footstep far down a hallway. His special ability, Audio Enhancement, which he usually used to gather information, was now a form of torture. It made the silence around them roar like a loud waterfall.

Then, a new sound began to emerge. It was so low and far away that at first, Ace thought he was imagining it. It was a low, dull thump that he felt vibrating through the floor more than he actually heard it. His body went stiff, and he pressed his palm flat against the cold concrete.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered into the darkness.

"Hear what?" Silva's voice was groggy with exhaustion.

"I didn't hear anything," Evelyn said quietly.

But Kaito, with his hacker's instinct for noticing things that are out of place, whispered back, "A vibration. I felt it, too."

Another thump came, this one slightly clearer. Then another, and another, in a quick sequence. It didn't sound like a single explosion. It was heavier, more rhythmic. Boom… boom-boom-boom. These sounds were soon joined by a new, faint noise—the high, screaming cry of emergency sirens. There were many of them.

The noises were coming from the east side of the city.

Ace scrambled to his knees, turning to face the wall where the hidden panel was located. "It's starting," he said, his heart beginning to pound hard against his ribs. "The jackals are here."

As if his words were a signal, the heavy lock on their door clanked loudly, making all of them jump. The door swung open, flooding the small, dark room with a blindingly bright light. They winced, throwing up their tied hands to shield their eyes.

Standing in the doorway was Marcus, the head enforcer for Victor Ramos. His face was a mask of cold anger, but Ace, looking closely, could see a flicker of something else underneath—haste. "On your feet," Marcus barked, his voice tense. "The boss wants to see you. Now."

This was it. The moment they had been waiting for. Had Ramos ordered them brought out to be executed? Or to force them to work for him immediately? Ace's internal System remained silent, offering him no analysis, no safe path forward. They were completely on their own.

Another guard stepped in and cut the plastic zip-ties from their wrists. The feeling of blood flowing freely back into their hands was a sharp relief, but it was immediately overshadowed by a fresh wave of fear. They were marched out of the room and down a wide, beautifully carpeted hallway. This was Ramos's penthouse, a world of silent luxury that felt a million miles away from the gritty cannery and the desperate streets they knew.

They were ushered into a vast living room. One entire wall was a giant window, offering a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. The sky outside was just beginning to lighten, turning from deepest black to a deep, bruised purple—the first hint of the approaching dawn.

Victor Ramos stood with his back to them, silhouetted against the huge window. He was dressed perfectly, as always, but his posture was stiff and rigid. The cityscape before him was not peaceful. To the east, in the area of the docklands, several thick, black columns of smoke rose into the early morning sky, their bases glowing an ominous orange. The distant thump of explosions was much clearer here, and the sirens wove together into a constant, chaotic chorus.

Ramos did not turn around. "Come here," he said, his voice surprisingly calm.

Hesitantly, Ace led the others forward until they stood just a few feet behind him. The view was both breathtaking and terrifying. The eastern part of the city was clearly under attack. They could see tiny, bright flashes of gunfire and sudden, larger blossoms of fire where something explosive had gone off.

"Look at it," Ramos said, his tone almost conversational. "The sheer stupidity of it. The complete, brute-force ignorance." He finally turned to face them. His eyes were cold and sharp, but the calm control he had shown hours earlier was now stretched very thin. A tiny muscle in his jaw twitched. "Vincenzo. A man who thinks about as deeply as a puddle. He sees a number in a bank account disappear and thinks it means my power is gone. He thinks that this…" He gestured with contempt toward the window. "…this pointless fireworks display is how you win a war."

At that moment, Ace's internal System flickered to life in his mind, its text appearing as a cool overlay across the dramatic scene.

<<<>>>

ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT: VICTOR RAMOS.

VITAL SIGNS: Heart rate is elevated, breathing is faster. These are clear signs of stress.

SPEECH PATTERNS: He is speaking in a condescending way, but he keeps talking about himself. This is a sign that his ego is under threat.

SITUATION CONFIRMED: There are open attacks from rival gangs. The city is in a state of conflict.

CONCLUSION: Subject Ramos is the 'wounded wolf.' His primary asset—which is the fear he commands—is being directly challenged. His appearance of calm is just an act.

<<<>>>

Ramos's gaze settled directly on Ace, seeming to look right through him. "Your little stunt with my money was clever. I'll give you that. But you failed to understand how this world works. You wounded the most powerful predator, and now the weaker scavengers have come out to fight. They will tear this city apart looking for scraps of power, and when they are done, there will be nothing left for anyone."

A cell phone sitting on a nearby table began to buzz loudly. Ramos completely ignored it. "My operations are spread out across the city. My real power isn't stored in a single warehouse or a bank vault. It exists in the minds of the people who are afraid of me. Vincenzo is attacking buildings, but I control people." He took a step closer to Ace, his presence intimidating. "But unfortunately, a show of force is now necessary. And you four are going to help me put on that show."

The phone buzzed again, this time with more urgency. A muscle near Ramos's eye twitched in irritation. He snatched the phone from the table. "What?" he snapped into the receiver. The person on the other end spoke quickly. Ramos's face grew dark with anger. "What do you mean, they've fallen back? They were under orders to hold that position!" He listened for another moment, gripping the phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "No. Do not send reinforcements to the docks. Pull all our men back to the financial district. Secure our most important holdings there. If Vincenzo wants to burn down the slums, let him. He'd be doing us a favor by cleaning up the trash."

He ended the call and threw the phone onto a plush sofa. His mask of calm intelligence was now completely gone, replaced by raw, furious necessity. The 'jackals' weren't just circling anymore; they were taking real bites out of his territory.

"Change of plans," Ramos said, his voice a low, dangerous growl. He pointed a finger at Marcus. "Get them down to the secure garage. Now. We're leaving."

"Where are you taking us?" Evelyn asked. Her voice trembled, but there was a defiant strength in it.

Ramos gave her a look that was meant to make her feel small and insignificant. "To a more… secure location. This penthouse is too visible and too easy a target. And you…" His eyes swept over all of them. "…have just become my most valuable assets, and also my most troublesome ones. We are going to finish our discussion somewhere we won't be interrupted by idiots with explosives."

Marcus and the other guards quickly and roughly ushered them out of the living room and into a private elevator. The ride down was swift and silent. The elevator doors opened directly into a huge, concrete-lined underground garage. Several black SUVs were parked there, their engines already running, filling the air with a low rumble.

It was in the middle of this commotion that Ace saw their first real chance to understand what was happening. The guards were distracted by frantic radio chatter and were busy loading weapons, their shouts tense. The eastern wall of the garage had large delivery bays, and one of the big rolling shutters was left partially open, revealing a narrow slice of the city outside.

The sky was significantly lighter now, a pale, watery gray. And through that opening, Ace saw something critical. A massive plume of smoke, much closer than the docklands, was rising from what looked like an industrial park. The jackals were attacking much closer to the heart of Ramos's territory than he had admitted.

Then, Ace's Audio Enhancement ability picked up a snippet of conversation between two guards standing near an SUV. "…lost the whole shipment at the rail yard. Vincenzo's men were waiting for us. They knew exactly when it was arriving."

The other guard cursed. "How? That was a last-minute change to the schedule."

"I don't know, man. It's like they're inside our heads."

Inside their heads. The phrase echoed in Ace's mind. Silica. She wasn't just watching from a distance; she was actively participating. She was feeding information to Vincenzo, making sure every attack hurt Ramos as much as possible. The 'wounded wolf' was bleeding, and the 'jackals' were being led right to him.

They were shoved into the back of one of the black SUVs. Marcus climbed into the passenger seat upfront, while another guard got behind the wheel. As the car sped up the ramp and out into the early morning streets, Ace finally got a full, clear view of the chaos.

The city looked like a warzone. Police cars, their lights flashing red and blue, blocked intersections several blocks away. The air that seeped into the car smelled of smoke and something sharp and acidic. There were very few people on the streets, but signs of panic were everywhere—overturned trash cans, an abandoned car with its door hanging open. The sounds were no longer distant thumps; they were the sharp, frightening cracks of nearby gunfire and the roar of engines just a few streets over.

Ramos had been wrong. This wasn't just an attack on buildings. This was an attack on his very illusion of control. The city was screaming in chaos, and the man who claimed to rule it was being forced to run from his own home.

Ace looked at his friends in the dim light of the car. Evelyn's face was pale, but her eyes were wide, taking in every detail. Silva was gripping the seat, his body tense like a coiled spring. Kaito was muttering to himself, his fingers twitching as if typing on an invisible keyboard, already analyzing the patterns of the conflict.

They had all seen it. The wolf was indeed wounded. And as their SUV sped through the deserted, smoke-filled streets, Ace realized Silica's message had not been a promise of immediate rescue. It had been a diagnosis. The patient—Ramos's empire—was critically ill. And now, their prison had wheels.

The fragile hope they had felt in the dark room now solidified into a cold, hard certainty. Their captor was vulnerable. The world outside was in chaos. And in chaos, there was always an opportunity to escape. They just had to stay alive and stay together long enough to find it.

<<<>>>

SITUATION UPDATE: Environment is now hostile. Primary antagonist (Ramos) is under significant pressure and his control is slipping.

NEW PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Survive. Stay together as a team. Watch for an opening to act.

PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: Unknown.

<<<>>>

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