Chapter 578:

“Call Dr. Shaw,” Elias said. “Fix it.”

Julian glared at him, but his cheeks turned slightly pink.

Suddenly, my phone rang.

It was not my personal phone. It was the secure line—the encrypted phone I used for Phoenix Corp business.

The room went quiet. Elias’s hand stopped moving.

I picked it up. The caller ID was blocked. “Unknown.”

I answered. “This is Vance.”

“Congratulations on your victory, Phoenix,” a voice said. It was synthesized, distorted by a digital mask. It sounded like grinding metal.

My blood ran cold.

“Who is this?”

“You cleared the board of the pawns,” the voice continued. “The Sullivans. The Zieglers. Sterling. All pawns. But you haven’t won the game.”

“Is this the Mastermind?” I asked, my voice steady.

“The Mastermind is a title,” the voice laughed, a glitchy sound. “I am… the Architect. And I speak for the Council. You think you are safe in your castle? You think money protects you?”

“Threats are boring,” I said. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want to see if you can fly,” the voice said. “Or if you will burn.”

Click.

The line went dead.

I lowered the phone slowly. My hand was trembling, just a little.

𝖁𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖈𝖊: 𝖌𝖆𝖑𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖘⸱𝖈𝖔𝖒

“Who was it?” Elias asked. His voice was hard, his body tense.

“A new player,” I said, looking at the dead screen. “He called me Phoenix. He knows. He claims to represent the Council.”

Elias took the phone from my hand. “Did you trace it?”

“It was encrypted,” I said. “But the voice… it mentioned ‘burning’. It sounded… personal.”

Julian sat up straight, the playfulness gone. “The Council? The people who funded the Garden?”

“Yes,” I said. “Or something worse. Something left over from the Garden.”

Elias walked to the window, looking out into the darkness. “Let them come. We aren’t pawns anymore. We are the Kings and Queens.”

He turned back to me. “We need to solidify our position. Publicly. Irrevocably. No more rumors. No more ‘waiting for a nod.’ We need to show them a united front that scares the hell out of them.”

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

Elias smiled. It was the smile of a wolf who just spotted prey.

“A declaration,” he said.

The fallout from the Sullivan collapse was swift and brutal. By the next morning, the headlines had shifted from gossip to financial obituary.

SULLIVAN EMPIRE CRUMBLES: Fraud Investigation Launched.

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