Chapter 648:

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He pulled her closer, his hand coming up to cup her jaw. His dark eyes were intense, filled with raw honesty. “This is the hardest part. Acting separately when all I want to do is stand beside you.”

“We’re always standing beside each other,” Ayla corrected him gently, her hand covering his on her cheek. “Even when we’re a thousand miles apart. Go. Neuter the politicians, I’ll handle the traders.”

A slow, dangerous smile curved Cassius’s lips. “That’s my queen.”

An hour later, Ayla watched from the window as his unmarked helicopter lifted off from a nearby rooftop, a dark shape against the bruised twilight sky, heading south toward Washington. The penthouse felt vast and quiet in his absence.

She turned away from the window, her face a mask of cold resolve. The board thought she was isolated. The market thought she was defeated. The mole thought she was a fool.

They were all about to find out how wrong they were.

She walked to her desk and picked up her secure phone, dialing Vance’s direct line.

“Vance,” she said, her voice dropping to the cool, precise tone of a general before battle. “It’s time. Initiate the final phase of Operation Trojan Horse.”

𝗥o𝗺𝘢𝗻c𝗲 𝗻𝘰𝘃𝗲𝗅𝘴 𝗼𝗇 𝗀a𝗹𝘯𝘰𝘃𝖾ls.cоm

The secure command center beneath an unassuming logistics warehouse in Connecticut hummed with the low frequency of massive servers. Cassius had used his trip to D.C. as the perfect decoy. While the world’s attention was on the capital, he had relocated his entire tactical operation to this unrecorded, military-grade black site. A wall of high-definition screens displayed the world’s financial markets, red arrows dominating the displays as massive, highly leveraged short positions were taken against Gilliam Group stock.

“They’re all in,” Vance reported, his usually calm voice tight with anticipation. “Vulture Capital and its five feeder funds have leveraged themselves to the hilt. They’re expecting a fifty percent stock price collapse by noon.”

Cassius stood in the center of the room, watching the screens like a predator watching a bleeding deer. He held a secure satellite phone to his ear — a direct, encrypted line to Ayla.

“Is Serena in position?” Cassius asked, his voice a low rumble.

In the penthouse, Ayla sat before her own array of monitors, watching a live, hidden camera feed from the launch venue. She saw Serena standing near the stage, looking smug and powerful, giving a final briefing to the press pool.

“She’s front and center, ready to watch the fireworks,” Ayla replied into her phone, her heart beating a steady, rhythmic drum against her ribs.

The countdown clock at the venue showed exactly ten minutes to launch.

“The market is frozen, waiting for the event,” Vance confirmed, his fingers hovering over his keyboard. “All their capital is locked in.”

Cassius looked at the clock, then at the data feed showing the billions of dollars betting against his empire. He allowed himself a grim, terrifying smile.

“Ayla,” he said into the phone, his voice suddenly dropping its clinical edge, “before you begin, there’s a loose end I’ve been tying up for you.”

Ayla frowned, confusion rippling through her. “What are you talking about?”

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