It was a blatant, ruthless internal purge.
Even though the ship hadn't publicly dragged Obsidian Sun's name through the mud, the fragile alliance between them had been obliterated.
Serena had perfectly orchestrated the exact chaos she wanted.
Julian had no reason to keep holding a gun to the ship's head. A truly dangerous man knew exactly when to push an enemy into a corner, and exactly when to let them breathe.
As for the rest of the night...
Julian's gaze dropped back to the auction stage, tracing the slender silhouette in the black dress.
The smirk on his lips deepened into something dark and profoundly amused.
The rest of the show belonged entirely to The Panacea.
...
Meanwhile.
The Raven had been "escorted" back to his quarters.
Or rather, the second he stepped through the door, his personal guards were violently replaced by Project Zero-Transit's elite enforcers. The heavy door was deadlocked from the outside.
The luxury suite was now his prison cell.
He scanned the room. Every encrypted communication line Obsidian Sun possessed had flatlined. Even his basic VIP keycard access flashed a glaring red 'FROZEN'.
The Raven stood dead center in the room, his aura radiating a terrifying, murderous chill.
Locked in a cage, he couldn't even trigger a single backup protocol.
Earlier, when The Panacea had initiated a reverse-hack on their control terminals, he had personally ordered the destruction of their hidden nodes and backup routes to protect Obsidian Sun's deeper network.
He had scorched his own earth to save their core data.
But in doing so, he had effectively strangled his only way off the ship.
The Raven stared at the dead control panel.
After a long, suffocating silence, he closed his eyes.
Good... very good.
The Panacea had played him from the very first second.
But the worst part wasn't the realization. The worst part was the massive wall
monitor in his suite, still blaring with the live feed of the auction.
Director Kaelen's voice echoed mercilessly through the room.
"...malicious concealment of its extreme risk attributes... original partnership qualifications immediately frozen."
"...from this exact second forward, the fate of Specimen Fourteen belongs exclusively to Project Zero-Transit."
"...Whether Specimen Fourteen proceeds to the auction block depends entirely on The Panacea..."
Every single word drove like a jagged spike into The Raven's chest.
His fists clenched so hard his knuckles popped, the veins snaking up his forearms ready to burst. The red wett across his face from the Commodore's files burned wit a fresh, searing agony.
Lucius had done this on purpose.
The Commodore knew damn well that Fourteen belonged to Obsidian
Sun. He knew they had sacrificed oceans of blood, endless subjects, oceans and countless years to perfect that weapon.
But Lucius locked him in here and deliberately left the monitors on.
He wanted The Raven to sit in a cage and watch as the ship stole his masterpiece
and dangled it in front of a crowd of billionaires!
He was forcing him to watch the
woman who orchestrated this disaster the woman who stole Fourteen right out of his hands hold the ultimate power over whether it was sold or not.
It was humiliation.
Utter, absolute humiliation!