Eleven people sit around an oval table in a conference hall high above the city – ten men and one woman. The men wear identical gray suits, their faces indistinct and easily forgotten. Even those seated at the head of the table look no different from the rest. Only one figure breaks the uniformity.

The Lord sits near the center in a white suit and black shirt. Beside him is the same woman seen earlier – his right hand. Her name is Giselle. Today she wears a tight black dress and records the meeting on her tablet while the Lord listens without interrupting. Reports move from one speaker to another in restrained voices – numbers, arguments, conclusions. Nothing in the room suggests urgency.

A message appears on Giselle’s phone. She reads it once and quietly slides the device across the table toward the Lord. He lowers his gaze.

Christophe is dead. Heart torn from the chest. Ulrich and Vann failed.

The Lord remains motionless above the message as the air around him begins to warm. The discussion continues for a moment until Giselle senses the change. She raises one finger.

Silence falls instantly. Movement stops. No one turns. No one shifts. Everyone, including Giselle, stares at the same point on the table as the heat in the room continues to rise. The man seated to the Lord’s right begins to sweat heavily, drops falling from his face onto the tabletop while his posture remains perfectly still.

Time passes before the Lord unlocks his phone and types.

Targets: Heart Reaver. Ulrich. Vann.
Task: Eliminate.
Resources: Unlimited.

When the message is sent, the pressure withdraws and the air slowly cools. Giselle senses the shift, raises her hand again, and snaps her fingers. Voices return immediately. Movement resumes. The men continue speaking from the exact moment they stopped, as if nothing had happened and nothing in the room had changed.

Deep underground, Cerberus sits at a workbench cleaning a flamethrower, disassembling each part, cleaning it, inspecting it, then placing it back on the table. A pager vibrates. He lowers his eyes, reads the message, then stands and presses a button on the wall.

Sirens immediately erupt across the base and red lights ignite in every room and corridor. Throughout the facility soldiers abandon their tasks and move toward assembly. Nine in total – two hackers leaving their terminals and seven fighters already forming up. Armored tactical masks rest on the fighters’ foreheads, positioned so they can be lowered over their faces at any moment.

Cerberus finishes the briefing with two words, No restrictions. The fighters pull their masks down. Some of them smile. Moments later they are already moving toward the van.

Far from the city, a small house stands alone in the forest. Inside the kitchen Vann cooks while quietly humming a song. At one moment the melody stops. He listens. Nothing moves, yet the confirmation reaches him anyway.

He places the pan on the stove and turns off the gas, then continues humming more quietly as he walks to a cupboard and takes out a blowgun. Drawing a breath, he raises it toward the door and waits.

The door bursts inward. The first soldier through the entrance immediately takes a dart to the neck, the projectile tearing through the left side of his throat. He grabs the wound while his other hand tightens on the trigger, sending a burst of bullets across the room.

The soldier behind him grabs the wounded man by the collar and drags him outside while reporting through the headset that the third is wounded and support is required.

Cerberus answers through the comms that the formation must change and the house must be surrounded. The soldiers who were preparing to enter through the windows and doors step back ten paces and drop to one knee, forming a perimeter with their weapons trained on every opening.

Cerberus walks to the van, opens the side door, lifts the flamethrower onto his back, and approaches the house. Moments later the building is covered in fire.

Hidden behind the corner inside the house, Vann smells the smoke and understands he will not leave this place alive. He takes his phone from his pocket and sends Ulrich a message consisting of a single letter – d. The phone falls to the floor and he crushes it under his heel.

He moves through the house toward the back door, turns the key, opens it, and stops. Smoke fills the rooms behind him. Drawing in air, he steps outside and raises the blowgun.

The shot reaches him first.

The bullet hits him directly between the eyes.

Through the headset a fighter reports that the target has been eliminated. Cerberus approaches the body while another soldier keeps his weapon trained on it. He bends down, pulls a knife from its sheath, and cuts off Vann’s head, lifting it briefly to look into the open eyes before placing it into a bag held by another soldier.

Through the comms he orders the seventh, eighth, and ninth to remove the body. Moments later the soldiers return to the van. The body and the bag containing the head are loaded inside, and the vehicle leaves the forest.

Inside a small neighborhood shop Ulrich stands with his phone still in his hand. Tears run down his face. Several children cling to him, pulling at his sleeves and asking what happened. Ulrich does not answer. He simply stands there.

Later the burned house still smolders in the forest. One of Cerberus’ fighters remains hidden in the trees, watching the ruins. Cerberus expects that Ulrich may come.

A branch cracks.

The fighter turns, already raising his weapon, but Ulrich is faster. In one movement he slices the tendons in both arms and then both legs. The body collapses immediately, the weapon slipping from fingers that no longer respond.

Ulrich steps closer and quietly asks what the reason was.

The fighter only smiles.

Ulrich grabs him by the vest and begins dragging him toward the vehicle, telling him that he will explain everything.

At the same time police dispatch receives information that the serial killer known as the Heart Reaver may be located in a house in the forest. The message spreads quickly through police channels and nearby patrol units begin moving toward the location. Cerberus’ hackers intercept the signal at the same moment.

The police arrive first and begin establishing a perimeter around the area. Officers prepare to advance toward the house when a van suddenly drives straight through the blockade. The vehicle ignores the signals to stop and halts only after several officers surround it with their weapons raised.

The side door slides open. Soldiers step out and begin moving toward the house without acknowledging the police.

The officers exchange glances, waiting for instructions from their commander, but he hesitates.

Cerberus steps out of the vehicle, turns toward the officers, inhales the cold air deeply, and gives a short order that the perimeter must be expanded and no civilians should be allowed within five hundred meters.

For a moment the police remain uncertain, looking at each other.

Then the shift commander repeats the order and instructs everyone to execute it immediately.

As the officers begin carrying it out, one of them quietly asks another what exactly is happening.

The answer comes just as quietly – this is likely the unit they were warned about during training – the private force that handles certain operations in the city.

Moments later the soldiers begin firing at the house.

An ambulance approaches the outer perimeter. The drivers present identification and the police officer opens the side door to confirm who is inside.

Ulrich sits there dressed as a medic.

The ambulance is allowed to pass.

A few minutes later Gobby and German are brought out and loaded into the vehicle by the medics. The ambulance leaves the area by the same road it used to enter.