It was a small steel cylinder, no bigger than a thermos, engraved with an unfamiliar emblem. When he picked it up, a faint blue light pulsed from within—steady, rhythmic, alive.
He remembered the manifest again: “precision components.” Maybe this was what they really wanted all along. Maybe the jewels were just camouflage.
Above him, the helicopters broke formation. One veered off. The other began lowering a cable toward the road.
And when Dan saw who was descending on that line, he realized this had never been about cargo—it was about him.
