Last Resort

The world runs on quiet deals and dirty secrets.
Governments lie to save face.
Corporations pay to keep their skeletons locked in vaults.
And the people at the top… they sleep just fine knowing the cost is paid in someone else’s blood.

Every once in a while, that cost comes due in ways too big to hide.
A city levelled.
A headline that burns its way across the globe.
And the talking heads line up to feed you the same chorus: We’re investigating… we will respond… justice will be served.

Justice? That’s a bedtime story.
In the real world, there’s only retaliation —
and retaliation doesn’t wear a badge.

Cain Taggert knows this better than anyone.
He’s been the scalpel in a war surgeon’s hand and the sledgehammer when precision wasn’t enough.
He’s walked into rooms where men thought they were untouchable… and walked out without a scratch while the carpet drank their last breath.

They call him in when politics can’t touch the problem,
when soldiers can’t get close enough,
when spies have already been burned.

And this time, the problem isn’t a man.
It isn’t even a country.
It’s a shadow in the shape of a syndicate,
and it’s carrying enough stolen fire to burn the planet black.

There are no heroes here.
Just predators.
And Cain Taggert?
He’s the one they send when the other predators start getting ideas.