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He was hired to retrieve a rare book. What he found could bring down an empire.

Elias Voss, a disgraced investigator turned retrieval specialist, takes on a simple case track down an antique manuscript. But when he opens the first page, a cryptic code sparks a trail of secrets, danger, and betrayal.

As Elias digs deeper, he uncovers a secret society buried in shadows and they’ve been watching him.

The clock is ticking, and every clue leads him closer to a truth someone is willing to kill for.

Decode the cipher. Uncover the truth. Survive the game.

The silent cipher

Elias moved through the city like a shadow—his coat heavy with rain, his mind heavier with questions. The name at the top of Kade's list was the first real lead:

A smuggler. The kind of man who could get anything in or out of anywhere. If anyone knew how to navigate the forgotten tunnels beneath the city, it was Crane.

But the streets only echoed one thing.

"You're looking for Victor Crane? You're too late."

"Crane? Haven't heard that name in a while. Not since… you know."

"Victor's dead, pal. Been dead for months."

Dead men didn't talk. But Elias didn't believe in dead ends.

The last place Crane had been seen alive was a rundown speakeasy called The Hollow, hidden behind an unmarked steel door at the end of a narrow alley. The kind of place where people whispered secrets over cheap whiskey and tried to forget the past.

Inside, the air was thick with cigarette smoke and slow jazz. The bartender—a grizzled man with a scar carving down his cheek—barely looked up as Elias approached.

The bartender exhaled through his nose. "Then you're wasting your time."

"I'll decide that." Elias slid a folded bill across the counter.

The man's eyes dropped to the money, then back to Elias. He pocketed the bill with a sigh.

"They pulled him outta the harbor six months ago. Bullet in the head. Hands tied with wire." He wiped a glass, slow and absent. "Whatever he was into, someone made sure he wasn't getting out."

Elias's jaw clenched. Crane wasn't just dead—he'd been silenced.

The bartender let out a dry, joyless chuckle. "If anyone knew, they'd be floating next to him." He leaned in, voice dropping. "But there was something… Before he disappeared, Crane was scared. Kept saying he was being watched. That he saw things no one else could."

Crane had been afraid. Just like Calloway. Just like Mercer.

Crane was gone. But his secrets weren't.

The bartender hesitated, then answered with a resigned grunt. "Mira Holt. They were tight. If anyone knows what he was up to, it's her."

Elias straightened his coat and headed for the door.

Victor Crane was dead. But his trail wasn't cold yet.

Chapter Nine: A Dead Man’s Name