Andrew Gates' POV
There are some deaths you mourn.
There are others you investigate.
And then there are deaths that refuse to let you sleep.
Devon's sister belonged to the last kind.
Three months.
That's how long I'd been digging.
Three months since the funeral.
Three months since Devon stopped and stepped away from every case other than becoming a chief of police.
Three months since the official report declared her death an unfortunate consequence of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I never believed it.
Neither did Devon, neither waller, and same Ben.
But unlike them, I had the luxury of being angry.
They wanted or perhaps accepted to live with the loss.
I had to live with the questions.
And questions were dangerous things in this city.
Especially when you asked the wrong ones.
I sat alone in the darkness of my apartment, surrounded by photographs, police reports, newspaper clippings, surveillance images, and names.
Hundreds of names.
Some dead.
Some missing.
Some officially nonexistent.
At the center of the wall was one word.
ECLIPSE.
I'd circled it so many times the paper beneath it had almost torn.
I stared at it.
"You're not big enough."
The words sounded ridiculous spoken aloud.
But that was the problem.
Eclipse was supposed to be big.
A criminal network.
A black-market organization.
A conspiracy embedded within law enforcement, politics, corporations, and organized crime.
I'd spent years believing that.
But the deeper I dug…
The smaller Eclipse became.
That was what frightened me.
I opened the final file.
A photograph.
Devon's sister standing outside a restaurant.
Alive.
Smiling.
Beside her was a man whose face had been deliberately blurred.
I enlarged the image.
There.
A symbol on his wrist.
Three intersecting lines forming something resembling an eye.
I had seen it before.
Not in an Eclipse file.
Somewhere else.
I opened another folder.
Then another.
Different murders.
Different cities.
Different decades.
Same symbol.
My stomach tightened.
"No…"
I started connecting the photographs.
Bankers.
Judges.
Police chiefs.
Politicians.
Gang leaders.
Military officials.
People who had supposedly died years before.
People who were supposedly unrelated.
The symbol appeared everywhere.
And then I found something that made my blood run cold.
A handwritten note from Devon's sister.
Six words.
Eclipse is only the shadow.
I stared at it.
Then read it again.
The phone beside me rang.
I ignored it.
It rang again.
I answered.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then—
"You shouldn't have found that."
I froze.
"Who is this?"
A click.
The line went dead.
I immediately checked the number.
Blocked.
I stood.
Someone knew.
I looked toward the window.
The city stretched beneath me.
Millions of lights.
Millions of people.
Yet suddenly it felt like every single one of them was watching.
I grabbed my coat.
There was only one person I trusted with this.
One person who understood how deep the city could go.
I personally would love to call waller but I needed someone who has the brawn and brains if not experience in matters like this.
No other person than Ben moshack.
They're both my friends and partners but moshack has a darker side towards cases as this than Waller.
And perhaps…
the biggest mistake I was about to make.
---
Two hours later, Ben opened the door.
He looked older.
Tired.
But his eyes hadn't changed.
"You look like hell," he said.
"So do you."
He smiled faintly.
"Come in."
I walked inside.
His apartment was almost completely dark.
"What's going on?"
I dropped the files onto the table.
"Eclipse."
Ben's expression changed.
Just slightly.
But I noticed.
"You've been digging."
"I've been investigating."
"That's what I said."
"No."
He looked at me.
"There's a difference."
I pushed the photograph toward him.
"Devon's sister found something."
Ben stared at the symbol.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he whispered—
"Andrew…"
"What?"
"You need to stop."
I laughed.
"That's your advice?"
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
He looked toward the window.
"You don't understand what you're touching."
"Then explain it."
He didn't.
That silence told me more than words ever could.
"The Eclipse isn't the organization," I said.
Ben's eyes slowly returned to mine.
"It's a fraction."
He swallowed.
"A small fraction of something much bigger."
"What?"
Ben's face hardened.
"Something that doesn't have a name."
"Everything has a name."
"Not this."
I leaned forward.
"Then what do you call it?"
Ben stared at me.
"God."
I almost laughed.
Almost.
But he wasn't joking.
"God?"
"That's what some of them call it."
"Who?"
Ben didn't answer.
I leaned back.
"How high does it go?"
Ben's voice dropped.
"Higher than the mayor."
A pause.
"Higher than the police."
Another.
"Higher than the government."
I stared at him.
"You're saying someone controls the city?"
Ben shook his head.
"Andrew…"
His eyes met mine.
"I'm saying someone may control the people who control the city."
The room suddenly felt colder.
"And the world?"
Ben looked away.
"Maybe."
I knew then.
The investigation wasn't over.
It had just begun.
And neither of us realized…
we were already being watched.
---
We spent the next three nights underground.
Not literally.
Though sometimes it felt that way.
Ben had contacts I'd forgotten existed.
Informants who lived beneath the city's legal system.
Hackers.
Ex-gang members.
Corrupt officers.
Clean officers.
People who knew how to make bodies disappear.
People who knew where bodies came from.
Together, we followed the trail.
Every lead brought us closer.
And every lead made the truth worse.
Eclipse wasn't controlling the city.
It was managing it.
Gang wars weren't random.
Political scandals weren't accidents.
Certain murders were scheduled.
Certain arrests were ordered.
Certain people were allowed to rise.
Others were destroyed before they ever had the chance.
The city wasn't chaotic.
It was organized chaos.
And someone was conducting it.
"Look."
Ben placed a tablet on the table.
I leaned closer.
A map.
Red dots covered the city.
"What am I looking at?"
"Disappearances."
"How many?"
"Twenty-seven."
I looked at him.
"Twenty-seven?"
"In six months."
"That's impossible."
"I thought so too."
He zoomed in.
The locations formed a pattern.
A circle.
At the center was an abandoned district.
"The old industrial ruins," I whispered.
Ben nodded.
"Eclipse uses it."
"For what?"
"We don't know."
I stared at the map.
"We?"
Ben didn't answer.
Something about his tone bothered me.
"Who else knows?"
"Nobody."
"Ben."
He looked at me.
"Nobody we can trust."
I smiled bitterly.
"Then I guess it's just you and me."
Ben stared at me.
For a second, he looked almost guilty.
Then his phone vibrated.
He checked it.
"What?"
"Nothing."
He pocketed it.
I watched him.
"You've been getting messages."
"No."
"You're a terrible liar."
He sighed.
"Andrew, walk away."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because Devon's sister died."
Ben looked at the floor.
"And because you think you owe him."
"I do."
"No."
His voice sharpened.
"You owe yourself a life."
I stood.
"And what do you owe?"
Ben didn't answer.
I turned toward the table.
That was when I noticed the second phone.
Hidden beneath the files.
A secure device.
My stomach dropped.
"Ben."
He froze.
"Where did you get that?"
He didn't respond.
I slowly reached for my weapon.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Andrew—"
"Who?"
The lights went out.
Every light.
The apartment plunged into darkness.
Then—
Footsteps.
Multiple.
From outside.
Ben stepped backward.
I looked at him.
"Tell me you didn't."
His eyes met mine.
And something inside them broke.
"I'm sorry."
The windows exploded.
Men poured through.
Armed.
Masked.
Professional.
I fired.
One fell.
Another.
Then something struck the back of my head.
The room spun.
I hit the floor.
Through blurred vision, I saw Ben standing untouched in the middle of the chaos.
He wasn't fighting them.
He wasn't afraid.
He was watching.
"Why?" I whispered.
Ben's face twisted.
"I didn't have a choice."
"You always have a choice."
His eyes filled with something I couldn't identify.
Fear.
Regret.
Maybe both.
"Not this time."
Someone grabbed me.
A hood went over my head.
The last thing I heard was Ben saying—
"Take him."
Then darkness.
---------