Chapter 162: The Chase

For three seconds, nobody moved.

The message stayed lit on Liam’s screen.

Now ask yourself why Dexter hasn’t told you everything.

He read it once, then again. His expression didn’t change. He locked the phone.

Dexter watched him. "What did it say?"

"You already know."

A brief silence settled over the room, Jack’s eyes moving between them. Whatever the message held, the timing was deliberate.

Dexter extended a hand. "Let me see it."

Liam didn’t move.

Dexter studied him a moment, then lowered his hand. "Fine." Jack glanced toward the dead monitors. "We’re wasting time."

He was right. The figure on camera had let himself be found on purpose, and now they had minutes before the trail went cold.

Dexter turned for the door. "Move."

The underground corridor came alive the second they stepped into it. Men moved into position, phones out, orders passed in low voices, vehicles called in without panic or noise, just controlled motion, boots echoing off the concrete in near-perfect rhythm.

The elevator doors opened. They stepped inside. Dexter pressed the button and the doors slid shut.Jack looked at Liam. "You have to trust him."

"Dexter?"

"Yes."Liam watched the floor numbers change. "Do you?" Jack was quiet a moment. "I trust what I’ve seen."

"That isn’t an answer."

"It’s the only one I have."Jack wasn’t accusing Dexter, and he wasn’t defending him either. He was just thinking out loud, and for now that was enough.

The message was bait. Nothing more. Whoever was behind this wanted them looking inward instead of forward. They weren’t giving them that.

The elevator reached the surface. The doors opened onto a black sedan already waiting in the rain.

Dexter got in. "Drive."The car pulled away hard. Streetlights stretched long across the wet pavement, their reflections breaking beneath the tires as the city blurred past the glass.

Dexter checked his phone. "Two minutes."

"How far?" Jack leaned forward.

"Three blocks." Can we reach him before he moves? Dexter’s jaw tightened. "If he’s still there."

Liam watched the streets slide past. Something bothered him. The figure on the camera hadn’t run. He’d stood there, waiting, wanting to be seen. Then the message had come right after.

The watcher wasn’t just communicating.

He was setting the pace, and Liam didn’t like it.

"Stop." The driver glanced into the mirror. "Don’t take the main road."

"Why?" Dexter studied the street ahead.

"It’s too obvious." Jack looked through the windshield. Three vehicles were already crossing the intersection up ahead. "He expects us to come from there."

Dexter didn’t hesitate. "Take the next turn."

The sedan cut hard into a narrow side street just as Dexter’s phone rang. He answered immediately. "Talk."

"Boss, the camera’s still active."

"Then why did the feed disappear?"

"It didn’t. It’s still transmitting."Dexter looked at Liam. "Show me."

The driver connected the phone to the dash display. Rain, an empty street, a dark storefront, a flickering awning. Nothing else.

"He’s gone," Jack said.

Liam stared at the screen. "Not gone." He pointed. "Look at the reflection."

The camera shifted slightly. A dark shape moved in the glass of a shop window. Someone was standing inside.

"There," Jack said, eyes narrowing.

"Stop the car," Dexter ordered.

The sedan screeched to a halt less than a hundred meters away. Dexter opened his door. "Stay together."

They crossed the street, rain striking their faces, cold enough to sting. The shop sat dark. Dexter pushed the door open onto empty shelves and a dusty counter, silence pooling in the corners like it had been waiting for them.

His men entered from both sides. "Clear." "Nothing here." Jack moved toward the back. "Clear."Liam stepped farther in. Something felt wrong, not dangerous, just too empty. Then he saw it. The back door stood open, rainwater blown across the floor, fresh footprints crossing the wet concrete.

Jack crouched beside them. "One person."

"Recent," Liam said.

"Which way?" Dexter stepped closer.

Jack pointed toward the alley, and they moved into it, the space stretching narrow and dark between two buildings, rain drumming on tin somewhere overhead.

A figure appeared at the far end. Black coat, same silhouette. He stopped and looked back. For one brief second Liam saw his face, not clearly enough to place it, but clearly enough to catch the smile.

Then he turned and vanished around the corner.

"Go!" Jack sprinted, Liam right behind him, Dexter’s voice lost somewhere in the rain and the pounding of their own footsteps.

The figure was gone by the time they reached the corner. Jack looked left, then right. "Where the hell"

A metal door slammed above them. Fire escape. The figure was already climbing.

Jack grabbed the railing. Liam caught his shoulder. "Wait."

At the top, the figure stopped and looked down, then slowly raised one hand. Not a wave. A point. Straight at Liam.

He vanished over the roof a second later.

Jack pulled against Liam’s grip. "He’s getting away."

"Let him."

"What?"Liam turned instead toward the building opposite them. A single apartment window glowed above the street.

The watcher hadn’t been pointing at Liam.

He’d been pointing past him.

Dexter reached them, breathing hard. "What happened?"Liam pointed. "That."

Dexter’s expression hardened. "Get inside."

Two of his men crossed the street at a run. The apartment door gave seconds later, and they vanished inside. A moment passed.

"Clear!"

"Nobody here."

Dexter went in, Liam and Jack behind him. The apartment was almost bare, one table, one chair, one lamp, and a laptop sitting open at the center of the table, screen lit.

Jack stopped cold. The display showed live footage.

Of them. Standing in the room right now.

"He’s watching us," Jack said, jaw tight.

Liam stepped closer.

The laptop cycled through feeds, the street outside, Dexter’s car, the underground entrance, even the private room they’d been sitting in an hour earlier, footage of their own faces looking back at them from a room they’d trusted to be sealed.

"This isn’t surveillance," Liam said.

"No," Dexter agreed.

"It’s access."That was the part that mattered. The watcher wasn’t following them from outside anymore. He’d been inside places they’d believed were secure.

Then every feed on the laptop vanished at once. The screen went black, and a single line appeared in its place.

You’re getting closer.

Jack’s fists curled. "He’s mocking us."

Liam didn’t look away. "No." Something beneath the message caught his eye.

Numbers. A countdown.

00:59

"Everyone out," Liam said.

Dexter understood immediately. "Move!"

The room broke into motion, men rushing for the door. Jack grabbed Liam’s arm. "What is it?"

"Something he wants us to see."

00:41 Dexter’s phone rang. He answered. "Talk." Nothing came back but a recording, hissing faint under the rain outside.

Then a woman’s voice filled the room. Calm. Frightened. Familiar.

"Liam..."

His blood went cold. He knew that voice.

"Please..."

The line died.

The countdown kept falling.

00:12

00:08

00:04

00:02

00:01

00:00

The laptop screen went black.

Silence.

Then, somewhere across the city, a phone began ringing.