One had purchased the research notes.
The other had challenged the bidding until the very end before walking away without the slightest trace of disappointment.
Neither behaved like someone who had come here merely to collect.
Helix rose from his seat.
Linn followed immediately, smoothing the folds of her evening gown before quietly falling into step beside him.
Around them, the audience had already returned its attention to the stage.
Another impossible object rotated slowly across the enormous display while bidding resumed as though sixty million had never changed hands only moments earlier.
The underground corridor beyond the hall was quieter.
Soft lighting reflected across polished marble while attendants stood discreetly along the walls, guiding guests toward private lounges, collection offices, and the underground parking facility.
Helix touched the concealed communicator beneath his collar.
A second bidder had changed the operation entirely.
Confirming Zeropoint was no longer enough.
They now needed to determine the identities of both.
“Split the team.”
A brief burst of static answered before Jion’s calm voice came through the earpiece.
“Report.”
“Two priority targets.” Helix never took his eyes off the man ahead.
“Team Alpha follows the winning bidder. Team Beta follows the losing bidder.”
A brief silence followed before Jion answered without hesitation.
“Understood.”
Helix spoke again.
“Beta Team.”
His voice remained calm and even.
“Drama—”
“Don’t you dare finish that nickname!” Jace cut in so quickly that he nearly talked over the transmission itself.
“It is your codename.”
“It’s not! It’s XO!”
“Copy, Drama King. You are with Kid. Aerial surveillance support.”
Jace’s long, suffering groan echoed through the earpiece.
“…I hate you.”
Helix showed no visible reaction as he continued.
“Kid with Drama King. Beta drone.”
“D-drone is airborne. Video feed is live,” Niel answered, his voice wavering between poorly suppressed laughter.
Of all the moments during Helix’s field commands, this remained his favorite.
The absurd codenames never failed to entertain him—and considering he was the youngest member of Enphire, “Kid” was arguably the least ridiculous of them all.
Above the warehouse complex, a compact reconnaissance drone disappeared into the night, its stabilized camera quietly watching the underground exits while transmitting a continuous live feed to Niel’s display.
Only then did Helix glance toward Linn.
“Clown, with me.”
Her eyes widened.
“What did you just—”
Helix ignored her, already looking forward again, continuing after the losing bidder as though nothing unusual had just happened.
He keyed the communicator once more.
“Alpha Team.”
The next words left his mouth with the same emotionless delivery as everything else.
“Boss Meow, Alpha primary command.”
“…”
Linn nearly stumbled mid-step.
She stared at Helix in another open disbelief.
Who the hell was Boss Meow?
The channel remained silent.
Long enough for Linn to wonder whether everyone’s communicator had suddenly malfunctioned.
Then—
“…Copy.”
Jion’s voice carried the unmistakable tone of a man who had long since learned that arguing with Helix accomplished absolutely nothing.
“Engineer Jayjay with Boss Meow. Alpha drone.”
A quiet click of the tongue came over the channel.
“Already airborne. Maintaining aerial surveillance.”
A second reconnaissance drone settled silently over the surrounding complex, its camera sweeping the access roads and parking levels as Jayden monitored every possible route leading away from the venue.
“Model.” Helix continued without missing a beat.
“Surveillance. Maintain visual contact. Do not close the distance unless instructed.”
“…Copy,” Sean answered with the weary resignation of someone who no longer questioned Helix’s decisions.
“Handsome.”
Static answered.
Linn frowned.
“…Handsome?”
Without the slightest hint of hesitation, Helix continued.
“Handsome, you are with Model. Standby.”
“…”
“…Understood.”
Soren’s calm voice answered through the channel as though being addressed as “Handsome” during an active operation was the most perfectly reasonable thing in the world.
Linn looked between the communicator clipped beneath Helix’s collar and Helix himself.
Where the hell did those codenames come from?
“Maintain open communication.” Helix’s eyes remained fixed on the losing bidder approaching the elevator.
“No one engages without command. Priority is observation.”
For the first time since joining Crossline, Linn had witnessed Helix command an operation.
Beneath the absurd codenames and expressionless delivery, there was not the slightest trace of uncertainty.
Every order came without hesitation, and every member responded without question.
It was as though he had been doing this his entire life.
Somehow, that was far more unsettling than she had expected.
Helix and Linn maintained a comfortable distance as the two disappeared into another wing of the underground complex, leaving behind the elegant auction hall and its polished marble corridors for a quieter section of the venue.
Security became noticeably heavier.
Cameras appeared more frequently, and every entrance required another credential check.
Here, wealth was no longer displayed.
It concealed itself.
A discreet brass plaque mounted beside an unmarked doorway carried nothing more than a Roman numeral.
No description.
No announcement.
Only another invitation scanner positioned beside the entrance.
The two men presented their invitation cards without exchanging a word and disappeared inside.
Linn and Helix followed a few moments later.
Their invitations granted access to both auction halls.
There was no elevated stage, no elaborate lighting, and no effort made to disguise what this section of the black market truly existed for.
Reinforced weapon cases lined one side of the room, displaying military hardware whose existence had never been acknowledged publicly.
Prototype rifles rested beneath armored glass alongside compact missile guidance modules, experimental surveillance equipment, encrypted communication systems, and equipment bearing no manufacturer’s markings whatsoever.
Opposite them stood another platform altogether.
There were no objects displayed there.
Only people.
Some stood quietly with blank expressions while others kept their eyes lowered to the floor, wrists bound by restraints subtle enough to resemble expensive jewelry from a distance.
Every so often another person was escorted onto the platform beneath the indifferent gaze of prospective buyers who examined human lives with the same detached scrutiny others reserved for antique paintings or rare gemstones.
Linn felt her jaw tighten almost instinctively.
She had expected illegal trade.
Weapons.
Classified technology.
Stolen intelligence.
Not this.
Beside her, Helix remained completely still, his expression betraying nothing at all.
The losing bidder appeared equally uninterested in purchasing either the weapons or the people.
Together with his companion, he moved slowly through the hall, pausing occasionally before one display or another without speaking to any of the attendants.
Several sellers approached over the next hour, but he only acknowledged each politely before moving on without making a single purchase.
Nearly an hour passed before the two men finally resumed walking toward the exit, leaving the secondary hall as quietly as they had entered it. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
Helix waited several seconds before following, allowing enough distance that their surveillance remained comfortably unnoticed.
By the time they reached the underground parking facility, the night’s auction had already concluded.
Most of the guests had either departed or were making their way toward their vehicles, leaving only scattered footsteps echoing across the expansive garage beneath the warm white lighting.
The losing bidder unlocked a dark sedan parked several rows ahead.
Both men entered, and the engine started almost immediately.
Helix watched the taillights illuminate before calmly turning toward their own vehicle.
Moments later, they were back inside the black coupe.
Helix settled behind the steering wheel while Linn lowered herself into the passenger seat, carefully gathering the folds of her evening gown before closing the door.
Both switched to compact wireless earpieces before Helix started the engine.
“They are moving,” he said evenly.
“Team Beta, begin shadowing.”
Ahead, the sedan emerged from the underground parking facility.
Helix counted silently to five before easing the coupe out after it.
Farther behind, Jace exited from another section of the garage several seconds later, ensuring his vehicle never appeared connected to Helix’s pursuit.
High above the darkened roadway, a compact reconnaissance drone drifted silently after the three vehicles, its electric motors producing little more than a whisper beneath the night sky.
“Visual maintained,” Niel reported quietly.
“No changes.”
Hardly larger than a dinner plate, the aircraft maintained a steady altitude over the winding roads leading away from the abandoned warehouse.
From that height, each vehicle appeared as little more than glowing wireframe silhouettes moving across a simplified digital landscape streamed directly into Niel’s headset.
Inside Jace’s vehicle, Niel sat in the rear seat wearing a lightweight immersive visor that covered most of his eyes.
The virtual display projected directly across his field of vision, layering telemetry, GPS markers, vehicle identifiers, and the drone’s live aerial feed into a single continuous interface.
Three wireframe vehicles advanced across the digital map—target, Helix, and Jace.
Every change in speed, spacing, or direction updated almost instantly.
Helix reached beneath the dashboard and retrieved a slim protective case.
Inside rested a pair of dark-lensed glasses nearly indistinguishable from ordinary driving eyewear.
He slipped them on.
The lenses flickered almost imperceptibly before adapting to the surrounding darkness.
Designed by Jayden specifically for covert pursuit, the specialized night-vision driving glasses amplified available ambient light while suppressing glare from distant headlights, allowing him to navigate nearly lightless roads without using visible illumination.
The system combined low-light amplification, thermal edge enhancement, and AI image reconstruction to produce a clear navigational overlay even in near-total darkness.
Almost simultaneously, Helix switched off the coupe’s headlights.
The coupe disappeared into the darkness behind the target.
Linn glanced between the front seats before quietly unfastening her seatbelt.
“…Move a little.”
Without taking his eyes off the road, Helix adjusted the driver’s seat just enough.
Linn squeezed through the gap with considerably less grace than she would ever admit.
Quiet rustling filled the cabin.
The platinum wig came off first.
Then the earrings.
Then the heels.
Moments later, the evening gown had been replaced by a dark tactical jacket.
“I have a feeling the next few hours are not going to stay peaceful,” she muttered.
Ahead, the sedan’s right turn signal flashed once before it left the main highway, turning onto a narrower road that disappeared deeper into the western outskirts.
Helix’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around the steering wheel.
A second later, Niel’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Target just changed route. Western Bypass.”
“That is an odd direction,” Jace said, frowning.
“There are no major residential districts beyond that route.”
Streetlights grew fewer with every passing kilometer as the sedan continued deeper into the western outskirts.
Helix remained just far enough behind to avoid suspicion, but close enough that he never truly lost it.
Several minutes after the losing bidder’s sedan disappeared toward the Western Bypass, movement finally resumed beneath the underground complex.
A convoy emerged from the underground parking facility.
Unlike the quiet departure of the previous bidder, this one left with unmistakably tighter security.
Four identical black SUVs rolled out in disciplined formation, each maintaining nearly identical spacing as they cleared the abandoned warehouse one after another before merging onto the primary route.
Their windows were heavily tinted, their license plates deliberately unremarkable, and from a distance there was nothing to distinguish one vehicle from the next.
Team Alpha quietly began its own surveillance.