The Physician's Gambit

The concrete pillars of the Thorne Enterprise parking garage didn't offer cover; they offered geometry. Elias moved through the shadows, his breathing a steady, rhythmic cadence that betrayed none of the adrenaline spiking in his system. Behind him, the heavy, synchronized footfalls of three men echoed against the damp floor. They weren't corporate security—security guards shuffled; these men hunted.

As the lead attacker rounded the pillar, a suppressed pistol leveling toward Elias’s chest, the world sharpened. Elias didn't panic; he diagnosed. He saw the man’s weight distribution, the slight tremor in his trigger finger, the over-extension of his stance.

Elias stepped inside the arc of

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