Chapter 2 Code White at Pier 23

Rain lashed against the Hudson River docks like bullets on a tin roof. Liam Burke's polished Oxfords sank into fish guts and diesel sludge as he approached Pier 23, white roses dripping crimson wax onto his cuffs. The bouquet smelled like funeral homes and betrayal—a perfect anniversary gift.

"You kept me waiting, husband."

Bianca Quinn stepped from the shadows of a Quinn Logistics shipping container, her CIA-issue tactical vest straining against a Vera Wang wedding gown. Night-vision goggles glinted beneath the lace veil, casting her eyes in poisonous green. She kicked aside a rotting salmon carcass with her combat boots, the motion making her diamond garter sparkle like a switchblade.

Liam's Celestial Sect tattoo seared beneath his collar. Three years ago, that same symbol had glowed on his mother's coffin seconds before the car bomb erased her from existence. Now, the ancient dragon-and-star sigil pulsed in time with the EMP watch Evelyn had clasped around his wrist at breakfast—a "wedding gift" currently flashing System Override: Target Acquired.

"Let's recreate your mother's farewell performance." Bianca ripped off her veil, revealing a neural implant port at her temple. "The Black Swan pirouette…right before the flames swallowed her ballet slippers." Her stiletto dagger crushed a white rose into the dock's grime. "Shall we dance?"

The first drone swarm descended with the subtlety of a grenade bouquet. Wedding confetti transformed midair into graphene flakes sharper than divorce lawyers. Liam ducked behind a rusted crane, the EMP watch humming like a vengeful hornet's nest.

Three…two…

Sophia Warren's Porsche 911 screeched into the kill zone, shattering the rhythm.

"You forgot your lunch, husband." She hurled a bento box through the shattered windshield. It skidded to Liam's feet, revealing SnowTech's quantum decryption chip nestled between California rolls—Evelyn's idea of a love note.

Bianca's laugh echoed across the docks. "How suburban. Should I send you two a blender next?"

Liam smashed the EMP watch against the crane. The pulse wave fried drones into molten metal roses that rained down like hell's bouquet. Bianca staggered as her neural implant sparked, crimson wedding mascara bleeding into a snarl.

"You think this changes anything?" She yanked a plasma pistol from her garter. "The CIA owns six of your fiancées. MI6 has two. And the ninth…" Her finger tightened on the trigger. "…is currently auctioning your sperm sample on the dark web."

Sophia's scream tore through the chaos as Liam lunged. Their collision sent the plasma pistol skittering into the Hudson, its discharge igniting an oil slick into a dragon-shaped inferno. The flames danced across Bianca's wedding gown as Liam snapped CIA-issue handcuffs around her wrists—the same cuffs she'd used to restrain him during their first "date" at Gitmo.

"Still using our safe word, I see." Bianca spat blood onto his Armani shirt. "Pathetic."

The explosion came without warning.

Bianca's neural implant detonated in a cascade of blue fire, blasting open the Quinn Logistics containers. Liam shielded Sophia as shrapnel shredded Bianca's wedding train, revealing rows of cryogenic tanks glowing like cursed wedding presents.

Frost curled through the dock's humid air as Liam approached. Behind fogged glass floated men with his face—his jawline, his scars, his Celestial Sect tattoos. Their frozen eyelids twitched in unison.

"Meet Project Phoenix." Bianca coughed through broken ribs, her wedding gown now a charcoal shroud. "Your sect's elders make excellent lab rats. We've been cloning them since the massacre." She grinned with split lips. "Happy deathday, Liam Burke."

Sophia's phone buzzed with a CNN alert: SnowTech CEO Evelyn Snow acquires Quinn Logistics in hostile takeover. The timestamp matched the EMP pulse down to the millisecond.

As NYPD choppers swarmed overhead, Liam's burner phone vibrated. The message glowed like a digital ghost:

Cute show. Want your mother's autopsy files? Meet me at Times Square TKTS booth. Wear the red rose. –V

He crushed the phone underfoot, white rose petals swirling in the diesel-scented wind. Sophia stared at the cryogenic tanks, her Gucci blouse smeared with blood and Liam's lies.

"Who the hell are you?" she whispered.

Liam plucked a surviving rose from the carnage. The thorn pierced his thumb, blood welling where Bianca's engagement ring should have been.

"Yours." He tucked the flower behind Sophia's ear. "Until death do us part."