Chains of Peace and Intent

The sedan slips off the arterial lanes and into a corridor of warehouses, rain hammering the roof. Elias slows near a chain link lot with a broken sign. His jaw tightens. "This is it. If Revenant is ahead of us, we do not get a second chance."

Ahead, a white panel van sits crooked by the curb, its side door open. Two figures in dark jackets move at the storage unit row, one carrying a flashlight, the other checking the locks. The unit Elias mentioned is ten feet away.

Elias keeps the sedan rolling, just enough to stay hidden behind a stack of pallet cages. Rain beads on the glass. The letter in Thadeus's hand suddenly feels like a map with a deadline.

One of the figures jerks toward the lot, as if hearing the engine. The route is clear now, and brutal, intercept them fast, or let Revenant reach the artifact first.

Thadeus slips out under the van’s shadow, rain ticking on metal as he angles behind the white panel truck.

He reaches the rear corner, low and quiet, and catches the two men with their backs half-turned to the storage lanes.

Thadeus lifts two fingers, then drops his hand once. Elias answers with a sharp blast of the horn.

Both men flinch toward the sound. One steps wrong in the wet gravel, and Thadeus surges out from cover.

The wooden sword cracks into a shoulder and then a wrist, hard enough to break their attention without breaking the moment.

One man staggers back into the van door, shocked. Under the truck’s bumper, a duffel slips into view, half-open, with a dark hard case inside.

Thadeus shifts the duffel with one foot, sliding it clear of the van’s bumper without taking his eyes off the lane.

The man he struck lunges back in through the rain, and Thadeus slips aside by a breath.

The wooden sword comes down across the man’s back, a blunt thud that folds him forward and steals his balance.

He catches himself on one hand in the gravel, stunned and gasping.

The duffel skids to a stop at Thadeus’s heel, the hard case inside knocking once against the canvas.

The Second Figure shifts his weight, his hand darting beneath the heavy folds of his jacket to reveal the cold, unmistakable glint of a serrated combat knife.

Thadeus lowers the point just enough to make the threat clear. Elias stays behind him, breathing hard, while the man in the dark jacket lies still on the gravel and watches from the edge of the fight.

Thadeus does not step back. The wooden sword stays level, steady as a fence post, and the knife hand hesitates for the first time.

The knife dips. The man in the jacket grunts and pushes himself to one knee, dragging himself toward his companion without taking his eyes off Thadeus.